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( (Sreen 3f unJ) JBooft mo. 20a ) 

Character Through 
Recreation 



By 
HOWARD PALMER YOUNG 

I i 

Minister in the Nebraska Conference, Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and Member of the Play- 
ground and Recreation Association of 
America. 



A PRIZE BOOK 



Philadelphia 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 

1816 Chestnut Street 



GoJ\^ 



v^oPi '^ 



Copyright, 191 5, 

by the 

American Sunday-School Union 



aO replace lost copy 



Publisher's Note 

This book is issued by the American Sunday- 
School Union under the John C. Green Income 
Fund. It won the first prize offered for the best 
manuscript on the subject of Amusements : How Can 
They Be Made to Promote the Highest Well- Being of 
Society ? The provisions of the fund authorize the 
Union to choose the subject, — which must always 
be germane to the object of the Society, — and by 
owning the copyright, to reduce the price of the 
book. In this way, works of a high order of merit 
may be put into circulation at a reasoaable price. 
The author is given large liberty in the literary 
form, style and treatment of the subject. 

This book treats a theme of universal interest to 
church and Sunday-school workers, parents and 
teachers. It will be specially valued by those who, 
in constantly increasing numbers, are devoting them- 
selves to developing the play life of the nation. The 
author brings to his task a wide acquaintance with 
what is being written on the subject in current book 
and periodical literature, together with extensive 
personal observation of the effect of amusements, 
especially upon the life of young people. While 
clearly pointing out the dangers and evils connected 
with modern amusements, his book is not destruc- 
tive but constructive. Its aim, as its title suggests, 
is to show how the play life of the nation may be 
made an important factor in promoting moral as 
well as physical health. 

3 



To MY Wife 



WHOSE ASSISTANCE IN CHURCH AND 
PARISH WORK WITH YOUNG PEOPLE, AND 
WHOSE LOVING ENCOURAGEMENT, HAVE 
HELPED TO MAKE THIS BOOK POSSIBLE 



Preface 

The importance of the subject presented, together 
with the newly awakened interest in play, should be 
sufficient reasons for the appearance of another book 
dealing with the problem of amusements. The fol- 
lowing pages owe their inspiration to the offer of 
the American Sunday-School Union for prize manu- 
scripts dealing with the relation between recreation 
and character. The author confesses also to a lively 
interest in the subject, from many years' experience 
with young people, — those most vitally concerned 
with play life. 

Avoiding a philosophical treatment of the subject, 
— which field is already covered by various excel- 
lent treatises,— the has endeavored to confine him- 
self to a concrete presentation of the results ac- 
complished in the various phases of uplifting and 
profitable entertainment. Though, in some degree, 
actual methods are outlined, the book does not pre- 
tend to be a compendium of entertainment plans, 
many comprehensive works already filling that field 
also. Its design is rather to show a vital connection 
between amusement and the well-being of society, — 
a kinship between recreation and righteousness, 
— and to plead especially for the exercise of the 
normal function of play in young life, which shall 
build a new generation, physically, intellectually, 

7 



8 PEEFAOB 

and spiritually superior to those of former times. 
The treatment of the theme, while alluding to some 
of the forces in amusement life which are destruc- 
tive, is, in the main, positive in tone, the cultivation 
of the higher ideal being always in mind. In pre- 
senting the subject largely by illustration and ex- 
ample, the writer has hoped to make the book both 
entertaining and suggestive, in order that young 
people may come to its pages with interest and 
leave them with inspiration. 

In addition to a year of special study, the gather- 
ings of twenty or more years' contact with young 
life have here found a place. A large amount of 
correspondence, many personal conversations, and a 
wide consultation of books of various authors, as 
well as magazine and periodical literature, have 
been necessary. To many of these sources of infor- 
mation ample credit has been given in the body of 
the book. For material on the history of play, I 
especially desire to acknowledge my indebtedness 
to Groos' Play of Man, Van Rensselaer's The DeviVs 
Picture Books, and George E. Johnson's Education 
by Plays and Games. In the final revision of the 
manuscript, various suggestions of the editor of pub- 
lications of the American Sunday-School Union, 
Eev. James McConaughy, have been of great value. 
The assistance of librarians and correspondents, as 
well as the encouragement and criticisms of friends, 
are also gratefully acknowledged. 

HowABD Palmee Young. 



Contents 

Page 

I. Play a Universal Instinct . e 1 1 

II. The New Value of Play . , 24 

III. The Era of Amusement . . 39 

IV. Sports That Kill . . . .53 
V. The Gambling Mania ... 70 

VI. The Supervision of Play , . 83 

VII. The Profit of the Playground , 99 

VIII. Play AND Patriotism . , .116 

IX. Education by Play . . .133 

X. In the Field of Athletics . .149 

XL The Sports of Boys . . .166 

XII. The Girl and Her Recreations . 183 

XIII. The Lure of the Outdoor Life . 201 

XIV. Amusements and the Modern 

Church 217 

XV. Amusements and the Modern 

Church (continued) . , .235 

XVI. The Joys of Home . , . 256 

XVII. Retrospect and Prospect , , 274 



Character Through 
Recreation 

CHAPTER I 
PLAY A UNIVEESAL INSTINCT 

Theee are common springs of thought and 
action among all races. Chief among these are 
the voice of conscience, the instinct of self-preser- 
vation, and the spirit of play. The activities of 
life which grow out of these universal inheritances, 
— worship, war, and recreation, — each have their 
part in building character, both individual and 
national. 

There are many who have spoken concerning 

religion and its character-building effects, and no 

small number who have magnified 

ay na ura ^^^ value of War, both offensive 

and necessary , ' 

and defensive. Few, however, 
have spoken of the influence on character of 
the play-instinct of man. An examination of 
the history of play, — a tracing of its origin and 
progress, — will reveal its connection with both 
patriotism and piety, and prove its value as a 

11 



12 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

character-molding influence. Manifesting itself 
in a thousand different forms, the play instinct 
speaks convincingly of its naturalness and ne- 
cessity. So early are its evidences discovered in 
racial history that we may well believe that play 
was an earlier art than labor. If, as many believe, 
the progress of the child's development is a repro- 
duction of the common life of the race, it is prob- 
able that men played before they learned to work. 
The basic principles of play are woven into the 
legendary history of men. The imaginative ele- 
ment, so manifestly present in 

Imaginative traits . . • ^ ^ 

. .. amusements, is a promment f ea- 

rn earlier races ' y 

ture of the earliest stories of 
national life. Indeed, the earlier races exceeded 
the present peoples in their exercise of the im- 
agination. 

The literature of aU nations begins V7i\h. poetry 
— the language of imagination and emotion. If 
we examine only the folklore of the early inhabit- 
ants of America, we shall find that among the In- 
dians imagination occupied a prominent place. 
Interwoven with the basic belief in the Great 
Spirit were the traditions of the Happy Hunting 
Ground, where the sports of the Indian brave 
might be continued even after death. The Indian 
languages are rich in the use of words in the 
imaginative or playful sense. When instructing 
his pale-face brother how to find his bearings if 
lost in the forest, the Indian guide takes him to 



PLAY A UNIVEESAL INSTINCT 13 

the base of a large tree and, calling attention to 
the heavy growth of moss on one side, says, 
" South side tree no carpet ; north side, much 
carpet." The speech of Pushmataha, a celebrated 
Indian chief, addressed to the French nobleman, 
Lafayette, when they met in Washington, D. C, is 
characteristic in its poetic diction : 

" Nearly fifty snows have melted since you 
drew your sword as a companion of "Washington. 
"With him you fought the enemies of America. 
You mingled your blood with that of the enemy 
and proved yourself a warrior. After you finished 
that war, you returned to your own country, and 
you are now come back to revisit the land where 
you are honored by a numerous and powerful peo- 
ple. You see everywhere the children of those by 
whose side you went to battle, crowding around 
you and shaking your hand as the hand of a 
father. "We have heard these things told in our 
distant villages, and our heart longed to see you. 
"We have come ; we have taken you by the hand 
and are satisfied. This is the first time we have 
seen you ; it will probably be the last. "We have 
no more to say. The earth will part us forever." 

The dramatic beauty of these lines is height- 
ened by the fact that just after this meeting death 
claimed the Indian chief. His farewell message 
to his companions is similarly couched in figurative 
language : " "When you shall come to your home, 
they will ask you, ' "Where is Pushmataha ? ' and 



14 CHAEACTEB THROUGH EECEEATIOK 

you will say to them, * He is no more ! ' They 
will hear the tidings like the sound of the fall of a 
mighty oak in the stillness of the woods." 

The graphic word jpiotwring of the story-teller's 

art, which also belongs to play life, seems to 

have been another natural gift 

ory- e ing amouff early and untutored peo- 

as an amusement t-, , , i ,. i t 

pies. Probably many of the In- 
dian tribes could furnish entertainers who vied 
with those of civilized races, being artful in the 
use of language like the Indian whom Longfellow 
describes : 

" Very boastful was lagoo ; 
Never heard he an adventure 
But himself had met a greater ; 
Never any deed of daring 
Bat himself had done a bolder ; 
Never any marvelous story 
But himself could tell a stranger." 

Further manifestations of the dramatic art are 
found in the multitude of rude war dances of 
savage peoples, in which stories of the hattle and 
the chase are presented^ often with weird musical 
accompaniment. Indeed, the gift of mimicry and 
imitation, which belongs to the actor's part, is often 
found well developed among those to whom later- 
day culture has imparted no artistic touch. 

A considerable part of the life of the ancient 
races was taken up with the problems of defense 
and attack. The instinct found in our later-day 



PLAY A UNIVERSAL INSTINCT 15 

fighting plays was a part of their native character. 
Primitive games were doubtless akin to the scenes 
of warfare which filled so much of their life, and 
were perhaps similar to a popular play among the 
Thracians of which Gutsmuth tells us. This game 
reflects, of course, the barbarism of an early and 
degenerate age. One of the players is required to 
stand on a round stone, with his head through a 
noose suspended from above. A sharp sickle is 
put in his hand, and at an unsuspected moment 
the stone is kicked from under his feet. He can 
save himself from death by hanging only by cut- 
ting quickly with the sickle the rope that sus- 
pends him, 

"What has already been said concerning the 
abstract ideas of play as a part of the thought 
life of early races, may with even more confi- 
dence be asserted concerning the material evi- 
dences of play. 

From the scattered reKcs found among the dif- 
ferent nations, it is possible to write a very inter- 
esting history of the recreational 

ay a umyers ^.^^ ^^ ^^^ Playthings of both 
charactenstic -^ ° 

children and adults have been un- 
earthed by the spade of scientific investigation, 
and widely severed lands bring mute witness to 
the universal love of amusement. Boys' tops 
have been found in the excavations of ancient 
Troy. They were known, too, among the Ger- 
mans from the earliest times. The baby's rattle 



16 CHAEAOTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

finds its counterpart in the graves of prehistoric 
children, and its progenitor has been discovered 
in a snail-shell filled with small pebbles, buried 
with the mummy of a child in Peru. The school- 
boy's marbles are cosmopolitan in character. Pol- 
ished stones, supposed to have been used as 
marbles, have been found with the bones of chil- 
dren in the old German burial-urns. Boys upon 
the streets of ancient Kome used to play marbles 
as they do in the open places of our American 
cities to-day. 

Relics of dolls as the playthings of children 
have been found in many nations. Among the 
ancients these miniature representations of the 
human form were made of clay and earth, of 
wood, bark, cloth, and other materials. In the 
Berlin Museum, forming a part of an interesting 
ethnological exhibit, is a wooden doll with mov- 
able legs, and a crocodile, also of wood, with 
movable jaws. These were taken from excava- 
tions in ancient Egypt. In medieval Europe, 
in ancient Rome and Greece, and among savage 
races, the doll was everywhere found. It is 
thought by some to have had an early association 
with religious life, for it has sometimes proved 
difficult to separate the idol of the adult from the 
doll of the child. Groos tells of his possession of 
an old Indian doll which appears to have been 
used as a protection from evil spirits by grown- 
ups, as well as a toy for children. 



PLAY A UNIVEESAL INSTINCT 17 

The boy who performs, to the delight of less 
venturesome companions, on his high stilts, does 
not know that he is following a long train of an- 
cient peoples who have thns elevated themselves 
above their fellows. Walking on stilts was prac- 
tised by the Greeks and Romans, while in China 
to-day they are also most skilfully used. Stilts 
are not unknown in Africa, and Andree says they 
are found all over the world. China and Japan 
excel in kite-flying, it being a national game in 
the Celestial Kingdom. We note also the im- 
portation of the kite into Siam, and the fact that 
it is found among the people of the South Sea 
Islands. Among the relics of the past in the Ber- 
lin Museum are paper kites from the Soudan. 

Both written records and oral tradition bring 

us additional-proof of the early prominence'of play 

in adult as well as in child life. 

ay among e Although the svstem of modern 

ancients . ° -^ 

athletic sports, as known in the 
schools and colleges of to-day, saw its beginnings 
only about a hundred years ago, it is known that 
athletics formed a considerable part of the train- 
ing of the intellectual Greek centuries before the 
Christian era. Indeed, trained athletes were a 
professional class in that cultured nation as early 
as 350 B. c. Wrestling was zealously cultivated 
among the ancient Egyptians, as it is to-day 
among the Japanese. In Japan the contestants 
who take part in plays of the fighting sort are 



18 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

trained with great care. In this training heredity 
plays no small part, as the profession is handed 
down from father to son through many centuries. 
Hence, the Japanese are proficient wrestlers, and 
the prize-fight is popular among them. Like the 
bull-fight in Spain, the prize-fight in Japan is a 
national sport, while various authorities testify to 
its presence among the Indians, the Hawaiians, 
the Burmese, and the Eskimos. 

Our popular athletic games are not really 

modern, but inheritances from people and times 

of old. Tennis is probably the 

ary origin oldest of all the ball-games. Its 

modem sports . . ° . 

origin is uncertain, but it first ap- 
peared in Europe during the Middle Ages. It 
was popular among the French nobility, who are 
said to have borrowed it from the Italians. The 
EngUsh in turn adopted it from the French. The 
name of the game is said to be French in origin, 
being derived from the expression " Tenez ! " 
which was used by early French players in serv- 
ing the ball. The antiquity of the game is testi- 
fied to by Horace, the Roman bard, who tells of 
Maecenas playing tennis while on the journey to 
Brundusium. 

The early beginnings of baseball are traced 
back to the game of stoolball, a special Easter 
game, which was religious in character. Joseph 
Lee says, " In the diocese of Auxerre it was an 
ancient custom to play in the church on Easter 



PLAY A IJNIVEESAL INSTINCT 19 

Monday a solemn game of ball while singing 
anthems appropriate to the season." ^ The more 
immediate predecessor of our national game, how- 
ever, is the English game of rounders. 

Football is supposed to have had its origin in 
Italy dm-ing the Renaissance, when physical exer- 
cise became popular with all classes. Games 
similar to the modern popular scrimmage on the 
gridiron are found among various peoples. An 
Italian writer of 1555 tells of a game resembling 
football which required that the players have 
shoes with soles of buffalo-hide. A game which 
may have been related to football is thus described 
by Forbes as popular on the island of Sumatra : 

" The young people amuse themselves upon the 
village green with a ball-game called simpak, in 
which they vie with one another in the display of 
measured and elegant movement, in the presence 
of the girls and the public generally. About 
twenty youths arrange themselves in a circle and 
keep a large hollow ball, skilfully wrapped with 
rattan, in the air by hitting it, as it descends, with 
the side of the foot ; they are not allowed to touch 
it with anything else. In delivering the blow the 
leg is thrown almost perpendicularly into the air, 
while the body assumes a horizontal position, and 
the beauty of the movement consists in the fine 
swing which restores the body to an upright 
position without upsetting the player." 

* Joseph Lee, American Play Tradition and Our Relation to it. 



20 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

Leaving the field of sport and entering the 

quieter arena of dramatic art and social life, the 

same universal interest in pleasure 

Theater and dance • n ■, . , i ■ t <• 

IS lound to possess the mmds oi 

early popular ^ , 

men. The children of Jerusalem, 
playing wedding and funeral on the streets of that 
ancient city, were referred to as an illustration in 
one of the discourses of the Master of men ; but 
centuries before that time both children and adults 
were carrying on the mimic life of the playground 
and the stage for their own pleasure or for the 
entertainment of their fellows. Traces of the 
theater are found a thousand years before the 
Christian era. While this institution is seen in 
its best form among the more cultured nations, 
we find that the element of dramatic representa* 
tion existed in various ways among all the ancient 
peoples. The exciting war-dance of the braves 
around the camp-fire was but a theatrical exhibi- 
tion of their deeds of prowess. 

The dance in its various forms is perhaps as 
widely known as any amusement we have to-day. 
Probably the earliest forms of dancing were asso- 
ciated with religious worship, but both sacred 
and secular dances are found at an early date. 
The religious character of the dance is still pre- 
served in the less enlightened countries, but among 
the more cultivated nations dancing remains sim- 
ply as a form of pleasure. 

We might thus go through the entire catalogue 



PLAY A UNIVEESAL INSTINC5T 21 

of the diversions of men, and find a common bond 

which unites all races in the universal pleasure 

instinct. Indeed, as already in- 

ec o p ay upon ^j^^^^^^^j ^j^g various plavs and 

national character i • i i • i 

games, which have attained an in- 
ternational character, show a lively communication 
between the various peoples, — sometimes where 
history is silent concerning any affiliation. As 
an instance of such communication of far-severed 
lands, let us note that the Mexicans of a time 
previous to the coming of Columbus possessed a 
game called jpatolli. The similarity of this an- 
cient game to the Eastern game of backgammon, 
and its relation to chess as well, have led to the 
supposition, amounting to a fair argument, that 
Asiatic influences were felt among those Western 
peoples before the time of the Spanish discoverer. 
However much or little the games of one coun- 
try may have influenced another, it is certain that 
the sports and pastimes of a people have an effect 
upon national character. The character of the 
Greeks was no doubt influenced by their games 
at Olympia. Originally instituted as a means of 
unifying the otherwise contending states of Greece, 
they accomplished more than their object in build- 
ing, for the Grecian people, a symmetrical physique 
which the world has long admired. The warlike 
disposition of the Roman was no doubt intensified 
by the constant witnessing of the gladiatorial com- 
bat. Such amusements fed the pugnacious spirit 



22 CHARACTEK THROUGH EECEEATION 

of the Roman until his love for war became his 
own destruction. Some lesser amusements of the 
Romans also betray the same recklessness of na- 
ture. Fond of games of chance, they fell victims 
to the vice of gambling. The lack of fine feeling 
may be seen in the Biblical reference to the 
soldiers who "drew lots,"— doubtless throwing 
dice, — for the seamless robe of the Master while 
he suffered the agonies of the Cross. 

Some one has pointed out an essential difference 
between the pastimes of the Greeks and the Ro- 
mans. The Greeks were actors, while the Romans 
were spectators. "No Greek, even though of noble 
birth, was ashamed to compete for the Olympic 
crown. The Roman patrician, however, was sel- 
dom found in the arena.- Certainly the Greeks 
possessed a cleaner play life than did the Romans, 
and this higher order of amusement was also ac- 
companied by a higher refinement. 

The downward course in the pleasure life of the 
ancient world from the Olympic games to the ig- 
noble scenes of the Roman amphitheater is noted 
by the historian. The lack of discrimination in 
the kind of amusements, and the accompanying 
dissipations of an effete civilization, wrought ruin 
to great and mighty nations. Present-day history 
is not without examples of nations destroyed by 
their pleasures. Spain has held to her bull-fights, 
her cock-fights, and other debasing cruelties, while 
her territory has gradually narrowed, and her 



PLAY A UNIVEESAL INSTINCT 23 

country, — in the point of literacy at least, — repre- 
sents a medieval past. On the other hand, the 
United States has eliminated the lottery and the 
duel, and subjected other amusements to more 
or less strict supervision; it has also developed, 
through its Christian statesmen, a high code of 
ethics and public morals. For years our nation 
has set an example in standing for that world-wide 
peace which is yet to find full realization on the 
high plane of human brotherhood, afar from the 
cruel game of war. 



CHAPTER II 

THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 

Probably never since the popularity of the 

Olympic games in ancient Greece has there been 

such an awakening to the true 

The present-day t £ i - - 1 j. 

/ . value of play as at the present 

awakening , "^ ^ 

time. The discussion of the effect 
of amusements upon character, once confined 
to a narrow circle of moralists, is now enlist- 
ing the interest not only of multitudes of edu- 
cators and philanthropists, but of thousands every- 
where by whom national ethics is counted a vital 
asset. 

The present revival of the play spirit is in 
marked contrast to the atmosphere of serious- 
ness which seems to have been 

Play in America , j^ • j • n a • j? 

characteristic of Americans of an 

a generation ago 

earlier day. In an article pub- 
lished in a leading magazine of thirty years ago, 
Edward Eggleston attempted to defend Americans 
against the charge of an English writer, that the 
people of this Western land are " an overworked 
race, incapable of amusing themselves." The 
simple pleasures cited by Eggleston as proofs of 
the ability of our people to play are so trivial 

24 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 25 

that one is inclined to wish that talented man of 
letters could see present-day America as it goes 
about to enjoy itself, "While the charge of " grim- 
ness and lack of joyousness in merrymaking " may 
have been too sweeping a criticism of our people 
at that time, it is certain that the changes in the 
amusement life of America in thirty years would 
probably now cause a very different estimate to 
be given. 

In earlier days it was often customary to think 
of play as a waste of time, and in the thought 
of many it was akin to idleness. Beyond the 
physical exercise derived from sports, there was 
little value attached to the outdoor games and 
plays which are now so popular. Doubtless there 
were many young Americans who had their desire 
for some coveted form of pleasure " nipped in the 
bud" with the same irate temper as that mani- 
fested by the old 'New York gentleman who for- 
bade his daughters engaging in the newly popular 
sport of sleighing, or "sleeing" as it was then 
called. Taking the girls to the attic and compel- 
ling them to remain seated in rocking-chairs, with 
windows open that they might have the full 
benefit of the icy atmosphere, the testy old man 
cavorted about, cracking his whip over the backs 
of imaginary steeds. When he judged that his 
daughters' desire for sleighing was sufficiently 
cooled off, he took them to the living-room below, 
where hot drinks were administered and they were 



26 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

admonished to thaw out " and leave 'sleeing' for 
those who were too warm." 

This tendency toward the serious no doubt in- 
fluenced early American life to such a degree that 
sports were considered unseemly, unless there was 
in them some practical element. Hence we find 
as the prominent recreations of leading men of a 
generation ago, hunting, riding, fishing, driving, 
etc. Only a few indulged in the more frivolous 
pastimes. Senator Roscoe Conkling had some 
reputation as a boxer, while Hannibal Hamlin at 
the age of sixty-three was an expert dancer, and 
Lyman Trumbull and Schuyler Colfax excelled as 
croquet-players. The spirit of the age is reflected 
in the statement of Samuel J. Tilden to a literary 
friend, when asked concerning his constant seri- 
ousness of manner, — " / never had any child- 
hood.'''' Though we would not say that the period 
in question had no facilities for joy-making, we 
may be sure that the spirit of sport, even with 
adults, is more evident to-day than in the days of 
our fathers. 

Little more than a generation ago the two in- 
stitutions, the School and the Church, whose ob- 
ject was the building of the best 
character, were doinff nothing to 

ence of School . ' ^ r^ Al, 

and Church niimster to the play Me of the 

young. The system of organized 

athletics as an element of school and college life 

was unknown, or at least not generally popular. 



Former indiffer' 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAT 27 

In the public school, the activities of the youth 
outside of book-study were confined to the " pieces '* 
of the Friday afternoon literary program, or the 
undirected amusements of the school play- 
ground. 

The Church, if not unfriendly to the indulgence 
of social play, was indifferent regarding its value. 
Doubtless there were few who would have sym- 
pathized with the extreme view of the relation 
between play and religion as expressed by Francke, 
of Halle, an educational organizer and philanthro- 
pist of considerable note in the eighteenth century. 
He said : " Play must be forbidden in any and all 
of its forms. The children shall be instructed in 
such a manner as to show them, through the pre- 
sentation of religious principles, the wastefulness 
and folly of all play. They shall be led to see 
that play will distract their minds from God, the 
Eternal Good, and will work nothing but harm to 
their spiritual lives." While this extreme was 
never reached, it is certain that the Church as a 
whole seemed to think that its duty to mankind 
was accomplished when it had performed its min- 
istrations to the soul. If either adults or children 
desired to play, let them seek elsewhere for the 
opportunity as well as for direction. For a good 
many years past the Church has been content 
simply to point out the dangers of certain forms 
of amusements, and it has been only within very 
recent years that any organized effort has been 



28 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOIJ' 

made on the part of the various denominations to 
suggest forms of amusements for young people 
and to superintend them in their recreations. 

There is a well developed notion among the 

leaders of thought that the attitude of Christendom 

on the subject of amusements has 

anging i been too negative, and that a more 

of the Church _ o ' 

affirmative message better befits 
the age. As an evidence of the changing senti- 
ment of the Church in its approach to the amuse- 
ment question, a comparison of the statements of 
a leading denomination on the subject, at different 
periods, may not be out of place. 

The first utterance was placed in the book of 
discipline of this great denomination in the year 
1872. It forbids, under pain of trial and ex- 
pulsion, any member of the church from engag- 
ing in " dancing, playing at games of chance ; 
attending theaters, horse-races, circuses, dancing- 
parties ; patronizing dancing-schools ; or taking 
part in such other amusements as are obviously 
of misleading or questionable moral tendency." 

The second declaration of this same denominar 
tion on the question of amusements was first 
promulgated in the year 1904. The gist of this 
declaration follows : " Improper amusements and 
excessive indulgence in innocent amusements are 
serious barriers to the beginning of the religious 
life and fruitful causes of spiritual decline. Some 
amusements in common use are positively demor- 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 29 

alizing and furnish the first easy steps to the total 
loss of character. We therefore look with deep 
concern on the great increase of amusements and 
on the general prevalence of harmful amusements, 
and nft up a solemn note of warning and entreaty, 
particularly against theater-going, dancing, and 
such games of chance as are frequently associated 
with gambling ; all of which have been found to 
be antagonistic to vital piety, promotive of world- 
liness, and especially pernicious to youth. We 
affectionately admonish all our people to make 
their amusements the subject of careful thought 
and frequent prayer, to study the subject of amuse- 
ments in the light of theu* tendencies, and to be 
scrupulously careful in this matter, so as to set 
no injurious example. . . . We deem it our 
bounden duty to summon the whole Church to 
apply a thoughtful and instructed conscience to 
the choice of amusements, and not to leave them 
to accident or taste or passion. . . ." 

The difference between these two declarations 
marks the changing thought of a generation re- 
garding the Church's attitude toward the amuse- 
ment question. The first is prohibitory ; the 
second is advisory. Then again, this latter dec- 
laration, while not " throwing down the bars," as 
many of the more liberal might wish, permits 
the individual conscience to assert itself, and is, 
therefore, somewhat more aifirmative than the 
former utterance. 



30 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

Yarious influences have led the Church to a 
larger regard for the play life of mankind. The 
Young Men's Christian Associa- 
Z^llTiT^x^ ^'"''^ ^^^ probably the most effect- 
to-day ^^® teacher of the need of a gospel 
that reached the physical and the 
social side of young men and boys. For many 
years past it has appealed to the physical side of 
young life with its gymnasiums, and to the social 
side by an active interest in sports and amuse- 
ments. 

It may be said that with the organization of 
the wide-spread young peojple^s movement in our 
churches began the first serious effort to furnish 
an all-round development for the youth under 
Christian auspices. Though there were several 
organizations more or less local in character pre- 
vious to that time, the new era of the Church's 
interest in youth began with the rise of the Chris- 
tian Endeavor movement in 1881. A number of 
denominational societies also sprang up, each, in 
common with the Christian Endeavor, having 
a department of work specially devoted to the 
directing of the recreation of its members. Yalu- 
able suggestions concerning proper amusements 
are constantly given in the periodicals of these 
young people's societies, and various books of 
games and plays furnish the basis for a healthy 
amusement life. 

We have entered an age where the Church, 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 31 

thoroughly awakened to the needs of the entu-e 
human being, is endeavoring to touch all sides of 
the individual. The institutional church, with its 
multiplied activities and many-sided approach to 
humanity, is no longer an experiment, and the 
time will doubtless come when churches every- 
where will incorporate some of the features of 
institutionalism. The changed attitude of the 
Church toward social life has necessitated new 
equipment. The modern church is built with 
rooms for social enjoyment and with apparatus 
for physical development. Often a gymnasium 
occupies a prominent place in its basement rooms, 
and many churches are kept open every evening 
in the week with varied social activities. The 
white-walled meeting-house, with its properly 
pointed spire, standing demurely among the 
marble gravestones of the city of the dead and 
sheltered by weeping willows, is unfitted to the 
newer age. The church-building of the present 
day has lost its sepulchral whiteness, and has 
moved on to a prominent corner to stand among 
the living, with open doors each day and night, 
and with a message of good cheer to all who 
pass by. 

This change has not been accomplished without 
some protest on the part of certain ones who fail 
to appreciate the spirit of the times. A certain 
estimable Christian lady, when I showed her the 
new church kitchen and dining-room and the 



32 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

rooms for social recreation, commented that she 
" always doubted the spirituality of a church that 
had a basement." 

Other organizations not directly churchly in 
character, but often closely affiliated with the 
church, have likewise come to serve humanity in 
a new and larger way. Yarious 'brotherhoods^ 
clubs, and other organizations, many of which had 
their origin as a result of the new play spirit, are 
ministering both to the physical education and to 
the amusement life of their members. The Boy 
Scouts, the CaTnjp Fire Girls, and other clubs for 
children and young people, are the offspring of 
this age of play. Even the Salvation Army, once 
a distinctively evangelizing organization, is now 
recognizing the needs of the bodily life of men, 
and is becoming more social in character. 

The changed point of vision among moral agen- 
cies has been accompanied by changes among the 
educators as well. The public 

How the school ■, -. j n ^ 

, ^ , schools and colleges now have a 

has co-operated . . . 

big interest in recreation. Edu- 
cation by plays and games occupies a large place 
in the earlier years of school life. The story is 
now the means of teaching where once the text- 
book held undisputed sway. Every day my boy 
comes home from school with some new story to 
tell or some new song to sing. How well I re- 
member when, as a lad of seven years, I tried to 
memorize the table of the " two's " by sheer force 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 33 

of will power. But my boy learns his numbers 
by counting the steps that lead up to the giant's 
house, or trains his memory in the meaning of 
number and size by putting blocks or sticks to- 
gether in curious combinations. And there comes 
back to me, also, the time when as a boy of ten I 
sat through a school period of about three hours 
without a recess, because the children learned " so 
much meanness " at that time. JSTow the plays of 
the recess period in many schools are as much a 
part of instruction as the hours in the schoolroom. 
The modern teacher believes, with Jane Addams 
of Hull House, that " the organized games, under 
the direction of good trainers, develop respect for 
the rights of others, fau'ness, and self-control; 
cement the school and homes, and counteract the 
lawlessness and destructiveness -which are the les- 
sons of the vacant lot." 

It is possible that the larger interest of the school 
in the life of the child may be opposed by some 
who have more sympathy with the "three E" 
style of an educational program ; but thoughtful 
students of the times are glad that the public 
schools have had an awakening. The introduction 
of equipment and direction on the school play- 
ground, the organization of athletics, the varied 
activities of the school which reach beyond the 
text-book, are producing a full-orbed character 
which is the child's best asset. 

A high-school principal visited a certain town in 



34 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

central Nebraska. "While at the hotel he was 
talking with the proprietor's son, a student in the 
local high school. He inquired of the boy how he 
liked the new principal. In answering, the young 
fellow assured his questioner that he liked him 
better than any previous teacher, and added, 
" I've never been so good in school in all my life." 
He told how the principal had organized a band 
among the boys, and had introduced athletic teams. 
He said his own grades were better than ever be- 
fore because he wanted to take part in the contests. 
The fear of falling below a certain grade and los- 
ing his place on the team had accomplished in his 
case what pleas and threats could not have done. 

The principal who tells this incident mentions 
another high school of his acquaintance whose 
proud boast is that not a boy in the school uses 
tobacco in any form, because of the high standard 
required in athletic contests. This physical re- 
quirement for membership on the teams has no 
doubt caused a reform that an anti-tobacco crusade 
would have failed to accomplish. 

Not only has this renaissance of play affected 
the work of the Church and the School, but the pub- 
lic has felt the awakening. The 
u ic p aygroun s ^^^.-^g from east to west throughout 

and recreation o 

centers ^^^ ^^^^^ have equipped and main- 

tained playgrounds for the chil- 
dren, with recreation centers for adults as well. 
The latest report of the Playground and Recreation 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 35 

Association of America (for year ending Novem- 
ber 1, 1913) shows 2,4:02 playgrounds and recrea- 
tion centers maintained in 342 cities. To supervise 
these 6,318 paid workers were employed, of whom 
2,462 were men and 3,856 were women. In 111 
of the cities the work is supported by municipal 
funds ; in 110 by private funds ; in 115 by both 
municipal and private funds ; while in six cities 
the source of support is not given. It will be 
seen that the financial side of this universal play 
endeavor is no small consideration when we learn 
that the cost of this work during the year was 
$5,700,223. Besides this, the bond issues for rec- 
reational purposes during the year are reported, 
in 20 cities, as amounting to the total sum of 
$2,358,000. In 45 cities land and buildings have 
been given for playground and recreational pur- 
poses, which, in 26 of these cities alone, amounted 
in value to $196,400. Aside from the cities in 
which the recreational work has been carried on 
by paid helpers, over 300 other American cities 
reported to this Association the beginnings of a 
play organization and playground work either 
under paid or volunteer workers. 

The interest in the new movement has mani- 
fested itself also in the legislative measures which 
have been passed concerning recreation. Not 
long ago the only laws on the subject to be 
found on the statute-books were those designed to 
protect society from objectionable amusements. 



36 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

But since our lawmakers have come to realize the 

social value of recreation, new laws concerning 

this important feature have been 

Legislation ■, . • i i i i 

, passed m considerable number. 

concerning play ^ 

There are now, — according to data 
furnished by the Kussell Sage Foundation, — 16 
states in which recreational laws are in force. At 
first these laws were merely permissive in charac- 
ter; — acts giving authority to municipalities to 
acquire land for park and playground purposes, or 
to permit the use of school-buildings and grounds 
for recreational purposes, or to allow the appro- 
priating of funds for the general purpose of recrea- 
tion. Later, laws more mandatory in character 
were passed, providing for park boards, recreation 
commissions, etc. In one case, at least, a provi- 
sion was made by which each municipality might 
vote on the question of having playgrounds main- 
tained at public expense. One state had before its 
legislature, for consideration, a bill providing for 
recreation districts in rural communities. All 
these legislative measures indicate the tendency of 
the times: — that society has the right to play; 
and that play is being recognized as a natural 
function which, rightly directed, shall mean as 
much for the welfare of the people as industry or 
intelligence. 

A close association between play and labor has 
been discovered in this newer age. It has been 
found that the child who has been trained to play 



THE NEW VALUE OF PLAY 37 

has also been educated to work. The same 
faculties used in play are used in work. More- 
over, by the combination of work 

Relation between , , << • . 

and play, — as, tor mstance, m 

play and work r j t ^ j 

manual training, — labor has lost 
its drudgery and become an interesting occupation. 
The further need of recreation as a rest from the 
sterner responsibilities of life, bringing new 
strength to body and brain, makes it essential that 
we link together play and labor, each a useful 
servant of mankind. 

Dr. Kussell H. Conwell tells a beautiful story 
which illustrates this close connection between play 
and work. A pious old Arab, who lived to the 
age of a hundred years, made it his duty to go to 
the temple every day to pray. He got there safely 
each morning, for, as he came out into the city, a 
beautiful angel took him and led him by the hand. 
He went forth happy each day, but always returned 
home sad, for every night as he left the temple 
there came behind him a terrible form that fol- 
lowed him to his house, and filled him with fear 
and trembling. On one certain day, — the day be- 
fore his death, — as he was making his last journey 
from the temple, the shadow-form came up behind 
him, put her hand upon his shoulder, and spoke to 
him. The old Arab said, " I seem to recognize 
that voice. Yes, it is the voice of the lovely angel 
who guides me in the morning to prayer." The 
form answered, " I am that angel who guides you 



38 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATIOlSr 

every morning to prayer, and I would have 
guided you home every night, but you were 
afraid. You saw me in the morning in the light, 
but when you returned from the temple I was in 
the shadow." 

The impulses that lead men to labor are the 
same that must lead them to play, — a vital in- 
terest in the personal well-being, and a desire for 
the best rounded life, of the social organism of 
which they are a part. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 

"We are living in the great amusement age. 

Modern history has probably never seen a time 

when the people, — all the people, 

America " amuse- , i .• ^ 

A „ — spent as much time and money 

ment mad " r j 

in the effort to enjoy themselves 
as do the American people to-day. Sport has be- 
come a business and pleasure is for sale. The 
simpler pastimes of a former generation are no 
longer satisfying. The thought of real benefit or 
of lasting enjoyment finds little place in the mind 
of the modern pleasure-seeker. The present-day 
American buys not only predigested food, but 
ready-made and predigested pleasure. It has been 
said, with much semblance of truth, that the pres- 
ent age is " amusement mad." 

The carefully made estimates of the number of 
those who regularly attend the public places of 

amusement are almost unbeliev- 
opu an y o e ^^^^ .^ their magnitude. The 

movmg-picture ° 

moving-picture show counts its 
audiences by the millions and shows no signs of 
relaxing its hold upon the interest of the lovers 
of amusement. It is by far the leader in point 

39 



40 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

of general attendance and business success. The 
daily attendance in 1908 was estimated at 4,000,- 
000, only four years later had doubled, and is still 
increasing at a rapid rate. While in 1911 there 
were said to be 10,000 places in the country where 
motion pictures were exhibited, the most recent 
estimates place the number at not less than. 
17,000. 

The picture plays are pre-eminently the amuse- 
ment of the children and the youth. It is inter- 
esting to note the tabulated results in investiga- 
tions concerning the prevalence of the attendance 
of children at the moving-picture theaters. In 
Providence, K. I., it was discovered that out of 
2,364 children in the grammar-school grades, 
only 156, — or about 15 per cent., — did not at- 
tend. In Lincoln, ]S'eb., an investigation by the 
Principals' Club of the city schools revealed the 
fact that 80 per cent, of the pupils from the fourth 
to the eighth grades are regular attendants. These 
statistics were gathered early in the school-year of 
1913-14, and are probably representative of the 
present attendance of the children in our American 
cities. The country districts, of course, do not af- 
ford the same opportunity for the formation of the 
habit ; but in every place where moving-pictures 
are presented, it will be found that there is a large 
attendance of children. A careful summing up of 
the patrons of the moving-picture shows, however, 
indicates that 75 per cent, of the attendants are 



THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 41 

adults, and 26 per cent, children. This is prob- 
ably a larger proportion of children than are found 
present with their parents in any other form of 
public amusement. No doubt many parents are 
regular patrons because of the small boy or girl 
who enjoys the pictured story. 

The hold of the motion-picture theater upon the 

masses is such that some have expressed fears 

that it would in time do away 

ec upon e -^j^j^ ^-[^q reffular theater. The 

regular theater *=" , . , 

larger expense and the higher 
price which must of necessity be charged, have 
put the regular playhouse at a disadvantage in its 
attempts to compete with this cheaper and more 
popular amusement. "Where it originally took a 
large company of players and costly equipment to 
entertain the public, now a single individual with 
the manipulation of an ingeniously devised ma- 
chine produces comedy or tragedy with equal 
ease. So great has been the reaction from the 
older forms of stage play, that a number of 
theaters in our large cities, yielding to what 
seemed the inevitable, are now presenting film 
plays to larger crowds than would attend their 
regular dramas. Large companies of actors, too, 
are spending their time before the moving-picture 
machine, instead of before the footlights. But in 
spite of all this, the theater still continues to 
entertain the many, and there are those who 
prophesy that the taste for the dramatic, which 



42 CHARACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

is being cultivated by the moving-picture shows, 
will in time make the real play productions of the 
regular theater more popular than ever. 

An attempt to estimate the attendance and 

character of those who attend the theaters of New 

York City was made during the 

ome gureso preparations for the Child Wel- 

attendance ^ ^ 

fare Exhibit during the winter of 
1910-11. The weekly attendance of all theaters 
in Manhattan borough was found to be 1,760,000. 
The standard, or high-priced theaters, get only 
nine per cent, of these, or 158,000. The attend- 
ance of children at all theaters was 370,000, only 
about two per cent, of whom were found in the 
high-priced theaters. By careful observation, the 
leisure-classes are estimated to compose a little 
over half the attendance in these standard thea- 
ters; the business-class 4-5 per cent. ; and the work- 
ing-class about two per cent. Comparing these 
figures with like estimates of attendance at the 
low-priced shows, — which include theaters pro- 
ducing regular plays at popular prices, as well as 
the moving-picture theaters and the vaudeville and 
burlesque houses, — it is found that the working- 
class largely predominates, and that the attend- 
ance of the leisure-class is relatively small. While 
these are only estimates, they were made with 
serious care, and may be judged as fairly repre- 
sentative of conditions as they actually exist. 
The managers of some higher-priced theaters 



THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 43 

may deplore the fact that the gallery has lost 
some of its attendants since the inauguration of 
the cheaper moving-picture show, but there still 
seem to remain audiences large enough to fill the 
better seats of the house. A story is told of a 
gentleman entering a theater one night, when the 
usher, beckoning him to a seat, said, " This is the 
way to the pit." The word " pit " was so sug- 
gestive that the man turned and left the play- 
house in haste. From the wide patronage of the 
theater, it is evident that no qualms of conscience 
have yet seized the amusement-loving public, and 
that the " pit " will continue to be filled, though 
the " gallery gods " may have sought a cheaper 
place of amusement. 

Next to the theater habit comes the dance as a 

popular amusement of young people, especially of 

the later adolescent age. Even in 

- ,, , childhood the dance seems to have 

of the dance 

strong attractions. The authority 
just quoted tells of the results of the questioning 
of over a thousand Manhattan children on the 
subject of dancing. These school-children were 
between eleven and fourteen years of age, and the 
results of the two leading questions: "Do you 
know how to dance?" and "Do you like to 
dance ? " are given below. 

Out of 1,253 children answering the first ques- 
tion, 813 (64 per cent.) answered " yes," and the 
remainder (36 per cent.) " no." Question two was 



44 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

answered by 1,024 (81 per cent.) with " yes," and 
only 97 (9 per cent.) said tiiey did not like to 
dance, while 132 (10 per cent.) did not reply to 
this question. The difference between boys and 
girls regarding their relation to the dance is in- 
teresting to note. Of the boys, 543 made reply 
to the first question, and only 34 per cent, of them 
knew how to dance. Of the girls, — 710 in num- 
ber, — 88 per cent, knew how to dance. A more 
even division occurs in the answers to the second 
question, 85 per cent, of the boys and 96 per cent, 
of the girls saying " yes." These figures seem to 
indicate that girls acquire the dancing habit earlier 
than boys, and that as a form of amusement it 
appeals more to them. However, as these were 
all young children, doubtless in a few years many 
of the boys and girls listed as non-dancers will 
have taken up this amusement. A classification 
of the same children by school-grades points to 
this result. The boys below the seventh grade, — 
most of them under thirteen years, — had among 
them only 30 per cent, who had learned to dance. 
In the sixth and seventh grades 44 per cent, were 
listed among the dancers. 

The wide prevalence of the dancing habit may 
be judged by the fact that in every large city 
there are many dancing-academies and public 
dance-halls, while throughout the country dis- 
tricts it is a popular pastime with great multi- 
tudes. The extremes to which this pleasure 



THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 45 

mania has gone during recent months have called 
forth large comment from the newspapers, and 
the pulpit and platform as well, attracting gen- 
eral attention to the increasing popularity of this 
form of amusement. 

Not only do the crowds flock to the indoor 
pleasures of the theater and the dance, but out- 
door sports attract their due 

Baseball and , . o xi • j. tt x 

proportion of enthusiasts. V ast 
crowds of people, rivaling in num- 
bers and interest the populace that thronged the 
Roman Coliseum in the days of old, share the de- 
light of the American game of baseball when 
"the season" is on. The sympathetic interest 
with which the devoted " fan " supports his team, 
his frenzy over defeat, and his wild glory over 
victory, are similar to the excitement of the 
crowd of " bulls " and " bears " on the stock ex- 
change. Upon the opening of the high schools 
and colleges in the fall, the game of football also 
attracts large crowds. Where once these games 
were the amateur amusement of the young men 
of a neighborhood, now it is customary to import 
skilled players from a long distance with a high 
salary for the season's work. The financial ele- 
ment enters so largely into these games, as well 
as into other sports, that the school or college 
having a successful team finds it a means of 
financial profit, as well as a great advertising 
medium. 



46 CHARACTEE THROUGH RECREATION 

The list of the forms of American play might 
be prolonged almost indefinitely, for their num- 
ber is legion. The stage is occu- 
pied not only by the rearular actors, 

pleasures ^ i , 

but by the showman, the enter- 
tainer, the lecturer, and the musician ; who, with 
myriad other attractions, amuse and interest the 
thousands who give them audience. The physical 
sports of the times are so varied that many forms 
of exercise might be enumerated. In the home 
or social circle, or in the public assembly, the 
amusement-seeking American is also found mak- 
ing merry with his friends in this way or that. 
Sometimes it is over the gaming-table ; other 
times it is through the romping games of child- 
hood ; often it is as an interested onlooker while 
others play. A full list of the pleasures of the 
day is scarcely possible, but it certainly would in- 
clude the amusement-parks, the menageries, the 
museums, the playgrounds, the race-tracks, all 
field-sports, the ice-cream parlors, the candy- 
stores, and probably even the saloons, — for the 
desire to "have a good time" lures men and 
women to the indulgence of appetite. So into a 
complete consideration of the amusement resources 
of the country would go everything by which 
men seek pleasure, whether or not real recreation 
is attained by the effort. 

It may be rightly judged that a nation so given 
to amusements will feel in many ways the effects 



• THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 47 

of its devotion to the goddess of pleasure. Some 

of these results are decidedly beneficial and some 

are unquestionably detrimental. 

y Fmancially, the business of amus- 

amusement '' ' 

ing the American people repre- 
sents a vast outlay, and the cost must of course 
be paid by them. We are told that in no other 
branch of American industry is there so much 
money invested. The usual expense of the prep- 
aration and staging of a new play is estimated 
at over $20,000. If it wins the public favor, the 
manager may sometimes clear, in a single season, 
more than $100,000 ; if it fails, he must be a heavy 
loser. Statistics reveal the fact that the average 
weekly sum spent in the theaters of New York 
City exceeds $500,000. Football cost five leading 
universities in this country, during a recent season, 
the sum of over $116,000 ; but the receipts from 
the games were such that these universities cleared 
over $182,000. One season of baseball in eight 
eastern cities brought in the sum of $6,000,000, 
cheerfully spent by devotees of the game. "When 
we consider these figures, it is no wonder that the 
commercialized amusement features of our coun- 
try should be denominated by a facetious para- 
graph er as " our billion dollar smile." 

The amount spent for sports in this country 
would indicate that we are a people much inter- 
ested in athletics, and we do have a certain kind 
of interest in them. But, as the critics of our 



48 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

amusement life have averred, our interest is 

second-hand ; a few play or exercise while the 

multitude are engaged in the very 

Passive partici- j - - • mi ^ • 

. . ^, . sedentary occupation oilookmff on. 

pation in athletics j r o 

We are not an athletic nation m the 
same way as are the Germans. In their annual 
Turner festivals, as many as 20,000 active athletes 
are on the ground at once. Our amusement life 
has become largely a mere matter of passive ob- 
servation. The clerk who has sat at the desk in 
the office every day during the week gets a Sat- 
urday afternoon off and goes to the ball-game and 
sits in the grandstand. Such an interest in ath- 
letics may produce star athletes, but it does not 
build muscle for the masses. 

In part, this affords an explanation why, with 
all our devotion to the art of recreation, there is 

still such a prevalence of mental 
Tension of our -, t i t 

,.- and nervous disorders. insane 

amusement life 

asylums are crowded and are being 
frequently increased in size. A tension in our 
amusement life is maintained equal to the strain 
of our work-days. Our recreation fails to re- 
create. In a general way, the overindulgence of 
amusements seems to be telling on the health of 
the people. The moving-picture shows are receiv- 
ing their due share, and perhaps more, of blame, 
the flickering lights, the exciting scenes, the 
highly -wrought interest, all tending toward nerv- 
ous instability. 



THE ERA OF AMUSEMENT 49 

Some extracts from the replies of school-chil- 
dren at Lincoln, Neb., give insight into the ne7'v- 
ous effects produced by some of the film plays. A 
sixth-grade girl says : " The worst thing about 
these cowboy pictures is the fighting and killing. 
It makes your head ache and you don't feel like 
working the next day." A fifth-grade boy says : 
"Moving-pictures put my sister wrong in her 
head. She is no good now." A ten-year-old girl 
gives this reason for not attending : " I never go 
to moving-picture shows because I do not like 
them. More than a year ago I went with my big 
brother. We saw some officers with guns chasing 
some prisoners. Pretty soon the sheriff shot one 
of the prisoners. Several men ran up and held 
him up high so that all could see. It made me 
sick all over. I covered up my face and did not 
see the rest of the pictures." 

Although no question was asked regarding the 
physical effects of the moving-picture shows, it is 
of some significance that more than 16 per cent, 
of the children referred in their answers to the 
bad physical features, the general sentiment of the 
remarks being represented by this expression from 
an eighth-grade girl: "The house smells bad, — 
it needs fumigating ; and the lights hurt your 
eyes." 

While some of our popular amusements may 
have detrimental physical effect, a more serious 
charge is brought against them, in that they 



50 CHAEAOTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

incite to crime and immorality. Cases are not 
wanting where the pictured crime in a moving- 
picture show has been duplicated 
Effect of amuse- j^ s^,ctusil life. The regular theater 
men s upon ^^^ charged against it, as well, the 

morals o o ? j 

promulgation of plays seriously 
damaging to public morals. The public dance- 
hall in our cities is known as the breeding-place of 
vice. The report of the Chicago Yice Commission 
says that there are approximately 275 such dance- 
halls in Chicago. Of those investigated it was 
found that liquor was sold in many with no regard 
for legal restrictions. Many young boys and 
girls frequent these places and associate with those 
who are admittedly vicious in life. The multiplied 
cases of destroyed character and shattered virtue 
indicate the need of the elimination of this form of 
pleasure. Investigations made by the New York 
Child Welfare Committee show that only about 10 
per cent, of the children in the public schools who 
are accustomed to dance enjoy this amusement in 
their homes. Of course the dancing-academies 
and the dance-halls of the great city afford the op- 
portunity to by far the larger number of the re- 
mainder. And the conditions of temptation in all 
large cities are similar to those in Chicago. 

The moral detriment of the unrestrained amuse- 
ment life is such that those interested in the pres- 
ervation of national ethics and purity cannot but 
declare themselves in favor of a more careful 



THE EEA OF AMUSEMENT 51 

discrimination in the forms of amusement being 

set before the rising generation. We have need 

to be glad, however, that there 

Urgent demand , . i <? . i • i 

^ . ^ are recreational leatures which, 

for improvement ' 

though furnished by the public 
vendors of pleasure, are broad enough to satisfy 
the most varied tastes, without the perverting 
character of the impure and the vile. Amusement 
managers when compelled to do so by public de- 
mands will give a higher class of pastimes. The 
evidences of improvement in the character of 
moving-picture films are noticeable since the Na- 
tional Censorship Committee began its work. 
Other forces which are operating for a better 
amusement life in our cities will be noted as we 
proceed. 

The city, with its polyglot population and its 
amusement problems, continues to present attrac- 
tions which menace our amusement life. To the 
one who finds himself surrounded by the toil and 
turmoil of the new amusement age in one of our 
modern cities, there will often come a desire akin 
to that expressed by one of the characters of 
Riley, the Hoosier poet. A family who had sud- 
denly become rich by a queer turn of fortune, 
had moved from the small country community 
into the great city. "With all its gay round of 
pleasure the city failed to satisfy, and one home- 
sick member of the family circle, longing for the 
old life, says : 



52 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

" The likes of us a-livin' here ! It's just a mortal pity- 
To see us in this great big house, with cyarpets on the 
stairs, 
And the pump right in the kitchen ! And the city ! city ! 
city ! 
And nothin' but the city all around us everywheres. 

" Climb clean up above the roof and look from the steeple, 
And never see a robiu, nor a beech or ellum tree ! 
Eight here within ear-shot of a thousand people, 

And none that neighbors with us, or we want to go and see ! 

" Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — 

Back where the latch-string's a-hanging from the door, 
And every neighbor round the place is as dear as a relation. 
Back where we used to be so happy and so pore ! 



*' What's in all this grand life and high situation, 

And nary pink or hollyhock a-growin' at the door? 
Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — 
Back where we used to be so happy and so pore ! " 



CHAPTER IV 

SPOETS THAT KILL 

In our amusement life two ways lie before us. 
One is the safe path of rational recreation which 

we term diversion; the other is 
Diversion ^^^ T^^ih. of the over-indulgence 

dissipation ^^ pleasure, or dissipation. When 

dissipation takes the place of di- 
version, then that which was made to be a bless- 
ing becomes a curse. There are two extremes in 
dealing with the amusement question. We may 
refuse to recognize the play spirit as a normal 
function and forbid its indulgence, or we may 
give it unbridled license and liberty and woo its 
delightful presence to our own destruction. The 
first was the position of Alcuin, generally re- 
garded as the father of medieval education, and 
of those who followed him ; the second was the 
doctrine of the Epicureans. With the extreme 
devotion of our people to pleasure, we may be 
sure that there are many to whom its indulgence 
has become a dissipation. They are receiving in- 
jury rather than uplift from their amusement life. 
In a former generation it was customary to 
forbid indulgence in certain amusements because of 

53 



54 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

individual conscientious reasons. To-day broader 
reasons are assigned for the avoidance of the 

evil in amusements. The social 
Pastimes that effect of moral carelessness is such 

that not only is the individual 

munity •' 

hurt, but society is also affected. 
Tor the safety of society, as well as for the purity 
of individual life, it may be seen that amusements 
of a dangerous character should be eliminated, or 
else be so safeguarded that the moral danger and 
the physical risk shall be reduced to a minimum, 
if not wholly removed. The social results of an 
individual sin give us more concern to-day than 
jn a former time when individual salvation was 
the slogan of organized Christianity. The evil 
effects of the individual's transgression afflict not 
only the transgressor but the innocent as well. 
The public pool-hall^ for instance, because of its 
associations, often makes for the destruction of 
community character in a most insidious way. 
The puhlio dance also, because of certain features 
that seem to be inherent, may undermine virtue 
and work serious injury to a whole neighborhood, 
including many whose participation has been of 
the most innocent sort. Public plays may also 
exert a harmful influence, due to the conduct of 
those who present them. The writer never sees 
the announcement of the play, Esmeralda, with- 
out thinking of the time when leading actors in 
the play as presented during his childhood days 



SPOETS THAT KILL 55 

became guilty of sins that brought public disgrace 
upon two of the most prominent families of the 
town. This first introduction to knowledge of 
the sins of society ; the unfortunate inheritance 
of a child born to unwilling parents, the gossip 
and unfeeling remarks of the thoughtless, — all 
form a memory that were better absent from the 
mind of a growing child. 

The modern dance has received its due share of 
criticism from those who believe it an unsafe 
amusement for the young. Like- 
^7Zdern*^°' wise its friends have spoken high 
^^^^Q words of praise in its behalf. One 

says that music is the child of 
dancing, rather than dancing the offspring of 
melody. Others, bearing in mind the early con- 
nection of the dance with religious life, say that 
dancing is in reality " the unconscious expression 
of suppressed religious emotion," and that it is the 
"supreme symbol of spiritual life." "With the 
thought in mind of satisfying the love of rhythm, 
one writer even hints at moral advancement by 
means of the dance ; " for," says he, " to live 
rhythmically is to live beyond the possibility of 
error." The friends of the dance not only rise to 
defend the time-honored two-step and waltz, but 
are loud in their praise of the new dances, such as 
the tango and one-step, when they are properly 
performed. 

Because of the number who rise to speak a 



56 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

good word for the dance, perhaps it is not strange 
that it should be so popular in society to-day. 
With the introduction of the so-called new dances 
there has come, as some declare, a " renaissance " 
of interest in the dance. Leading magazines de- 
vote large space to the descriptions of prominent 
stage-dancers, while pictures of the poses of those 
proficient in the new dances are given. Dancing- 
schools flourish, and the public dance-hall, either 
supervised or unsupervised, attracts large numbers. 
Select dances in homes or fraternity-houses are 
common, and many in school and home and 
church are lending their influence to a revival 
of social dancing. A friend of the writer, a dean 
in one of our leading western colleges, told me 
recently, " There is practically no social enjoy- 
ment for the young people in our school but 
dancing." 

Contrary to the tendencies just mentioned, there 

is a large proportion of the Church, and not a few 

outside of its membership, who 

Objections to the , , t- -,• .^ . J^^ 

^ ^ share a strong reeling that the 

dance of to-day o ° 

dance is not a safe indulgence for 
the young. Doubtless with many the sentiment 
is endorsed with no real knowledge of the reasons 
for the belief. When asked concerning the matter 
they perhaps would reply, as did a young friend 
of the writer, " Yes, I believe it is wrong to dance, 
— but I cannot tell you why I think so." If this 
belief, — inherited perhaps from years of parental 



SPOETS THAT KILL 57 

and church teaching, — has any basis in reason, it 
would seem that the reasons should be given. 

Those opposing the dance had special oppor- 
tunity to voice their opinions when the new 
dance-steps made their appearance. A wide- 
spread chorus of disapproval was heard from 
the Church leaders, and even the public press 
joined in the note of condemnation. Civic au- 
thorities of foreign cities, — notably Berlin, — for- 
bade the performance of the American dances. 
Munich raided and closed up a fashionable resort 
where risque dances were allowed. Even the 
University of Wisconsin put the dances on the 
plane of drunkenness, making indulgence in them 
a cause for expulsion. Some of the opposition 
died away, however, when it was found that by 
certain regulations of the dances they could be 
made less distasteful and, as some assert, improved 
to the point of gracefulness. 

The objections to the social dance do not rest 

upon the character of any one dance, but rather 

upon certain attendant features 

,, , which even the closest supervision 

the home ^ 

seems unable entirely to eliminate. 
Dancing is seen at its best in the select social 
gathering in the home. Doubtless there are many 
who dance under such auspices that do not realize 
the attendant danger. But the hostess who pre- 
sides over the gathering cannot always be sure of 
the character of those who attend it, and even 



58 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

here her guests are not secure from the contami- 
nation which so often comes as a result of liber- 
ties taken by the unscrupulous in the modern 
dance. The private ball, moreover, is an educator 
for the public dance, where there is less restraint 
both in the manner and in the personnel of the 
participants. 

The protests against the dance from the stand- 
points of late hours, scant dressing, nervous ex- 
citement, and physical over-exer- 

Waste of . . 

, tion, may applv as forcibly to the 

nerve force ^ j rr j j 

private as to the public dance. 
The appeal to the love of rhythm, which is 
unquestionably a strong factor in the desire for 
the dance, if carried to the extreme, may be even 
more detrimental than the physical effects. "When 
the dance becomes entirely a subjective process 
and the waltzer yields in semi-unconsciousness to 
the delightful whirl, it is questionable if the par- 
ticipant is not injured by the undue play given 
the subjective faculties. The deductions of Dr. 
Thompson J. Hudson' regarding the danger of 
the excessive play of the subjective mind in cer- 
tain life occupations, are recommended to the 
consideration of the thoughtful in this connection. 
The waltz seems to the writer especially dangerous 
because of this appeal to subjective activity. For 
the intoxication of the dance delights the par- 

' Dr. Thompson J. Hudson, A Scientific Demonstration of a 
Future Life, p. 300 ff. 



SPOETS THAT KILL 59 

ticipant for the time of its indulgence, but exacts 
a heavy toll in the waste of nervous force. The 
day after the dance is often the strongest argu- 
ment for its elimination from the recreational 
program. 

By far the most vital argument against the 

dance is its danger to personal virtue and social 

purity. The ethical objections 

The dance and i • i i i - <• 

. , ., which have kept many irom par- 

the social evil jt ./ r 

ticipating in dancing are strongly 
reinforced in these latter times by the discovery 
of its relation to the social evil, so alarmingly 
prevalent. The report of the Chicago Yice Com- 
mission bears abundant testimony to the intimate 
connection of the public dance-hall with the ter- 
rible vice conditions which it reveals. A chief of 
police is on record as saying that three-fourths of 
the abandoned women of New York City have 
been ruined by the dance. The manner of the 
association of the sexes in the dance-hall is con- 
ducive to the easy overthrow of chastity. 

An examination of certain amusement places in 
New York City showed the same relation between 

the dance and the sexually de- 
, . „ praved as exists in Chicago. At 

dance-halls ^ ° 

these halls and parks where the 
dance and the drinks are in evidence, girls are 
the desirable participants. One dancing-master is 
quoted as saying : " If you haven't the girls, you 
can't do business ! Keep attracting 'em. The f el- 



60 CHAEACTER THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

lows will come if the girls are there." And so it 
follows that down on the East Side dancing is 
cheap, — twenty-five cents a couple, and only ten 
cents for girls. A very young girl, returning 
home late after being at one of these places, said 
in response to an inquiry, "My mother don't 
know I go out there ; but I want some fun, and 
it only costs ten cents." But the cost in other 
ways is very great ! A writer in The Survey says 
that the "spieler" who infests these halls and 
dancing-academies, and who knows the girls and 
their capacity or willingness to furnish a good 
time for his company, will tell you confidentially 
that no girl comes to the hall night after night 
and remains what she was when she began com- 
ing there. Continuing, he says, "You cannot 
dance night after night, held in the closest of 
sensual embraces, with every effort made in the 
style of dancing to appeal to the worst that is in 
you, and remain unshaken. ISTo matter how wary 
or how wise a girl may be, she is not always able 
to keep up the good fight." 

There are of course many people of considerable 
moral excellence who are devotees of the dance. 
These will deny the awakening of impure thoughts 
by its indulgence, (among women this is particu- 
larly so) ; and the writer has no desire to indicate 
that all who dance find it a moral menace in the 
measure above indicated. Nevertheless, it is to 
be regretted that some excellent people lend their 



SPORTS THAT KILL 61 

influence to an institution which has meant so 
much moral detriment to many. 

Strictures similar to those urged against the 

dance may be applied to the prevalence of the 

theater-going habit. The cheaper 

Cheap and per- i -c iT_ ^ •l.^ 

. . ^, *1 class oi theaters, — with movinff- 

nicious theaters. ' ° 

pictures, or with both film plays 
and vaudeville, — come in for their share of con- 
demnation in the report of the Chicago Yice 
Commission. Conferences with social workers 
bring out constant assertions that the cheap 
theaters have an immoral tendency, especially 
with young girls. Their first downward steps 
are many times taken at these places. The 
"amateur nights" are a prolific source of evil. 
Through these amateur performances some stage- 
struck young girls have become moral delinquents 
at ages varying from twelve to sixteen years. 
Cheap burlesque theaters, some of them located 
almost in the heart of the business district, have a 
demoralizing effect upon young men and boys. 

The regular theater as an institution has much 

to its discredit. The prevailing tendency of many 

of the plays presented for a good 

Low ideals - i i j; 

r.u t-1- many years past has been oi a 

of the pubuc -^ '' '^ 

type lowering to character stand- 
ards. A demand upon the part of the public for 
the play that appeals to the lower instincts, or for 
some element in the plays of the better sort that 
strikes the popular chord, has caused amusement 



62 OHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

managers to forget the finer feelings of many of 
their patrons and to introduce features that are 
morally objectionable. As an instance of this de- 
sire to please the crowd, even at the risk of offense 
to the few, the experience of an actor acquaintance 
of mine may be given. 

The company was playing in a small town in 
the West. The opera-house manager had told the 
leading-man of the company that the character of 
his patrons was such that all objectionable lan- 
guage must be eliminated from the play, at least 
for that evening. This actor, disregarding the 
admonition, used a profane word in his lines at a 
critical part of the play, and received more ap- 
plause than any other player in the production ! 
After telling the story, the actor remarked that 
this was usually the case; — the profane jest re- 
ceives the applause, while lofty sentiments pass 
by with little notice. 

Those who know the most about the stage 

testify to the degenerate and dangerous character 

of a large percentage of the popu- 

, , " lar plays. A writer in the theat- 

ot plays ^ *' 

rical department of a prominent 
magazine recently takes to task those whom he 
declares are the foes of serious drama. He says 
these foes are not the frivolous, but the serious- 
minded people. These people have said, " There's 
enough unhappiness in the world without showing 
it on the stage ; " therefore, to meet this demand, 



SPOETS THAT KILL 63 

the stage must be trifling and more often perni- 
cious in its productions, Modjeska is on record as 
saying : " The simple fact is that to-day ninety 
per cent, of all the prominent English-speaking 
theaters of the world (and this is short of the full 
truth) are given up to plays of which those that 
are innocent and fairly plausible have not an ap- 
preciable value as literature, art, or reflections of 
nature ; while the rest are agglomerations of 
glittering spectacle, wild sensationalism, empty 
sentimentality, or sheer lunatical extravagance. 
In general, it must be said that the theatrical out- 
look is not encouraging. More and more the 
tendency of our managers seems to be in the 
direction of the sensational, the sensual, and the 
abnormal." 

The danger to the moral life of the actors upon 

our American stage has been a topic of great 

interest to social reformers in the 

Moral dangers of . » ^ i . ■ i 

sta^e life ^ years. Several articles 

published in leading magazines, 
the reports of the National Child Labor Com- 
mittee, and the investigations of the 'New York 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 
all furnish conclusive evidence that the effect of 
stage life is perilous to the young, and a trial of 
virtue to those who are older. The cases of four 
girls, — two of them seven and nine years of age, 
the others each fifteen years of age, when they 
began acting, — may be here mentioned. Three 



64 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

of these had taken child-parts in different com- 
panies ; the other had probably taken older parts. 
The last-named girl eloped with an actor and be- 
came a mother before the age of sixteen. Later 
she became an inmate of a house of ill-fame and 
committed suicide at the age of twenty-six. The 
other girl of fifteen was taken from a house of iU- 
fame by an agent of the Society above mentioned. 
The girl whose stage career started at seven and 
who, we are told, had always traveled with good 
companies, was arrested in Philadelphia for im- 
moral practices and committed to the House of 
Kefuge. The girl of nine, after an experience of 
a year on the stage, was taken in charge by the 
Society in an attempt to save her from complete 
moral ruin. 

We do not wish to make a sweeping classifica- 
tion of actors as constituting a class depraved and 
vile. Some notable examples of those who have 
maintained a clean personal life and labored for 
the elevation of the stage are remembered, while 
doubtless not a few others have made a successful 
fight for personal virtue among the temptations 
of stage life. Furthermore, we do not wish to 
indicate that there are no plays of the better sort, 
nor shall we here record any anathema upon those 
who patronize the theater. We have spoken of 
tendencies which exist, and which should have the 
thoughtful consideration of all. With the element 
of moral uncertainty and insecurity accompanying 



SPOETS THAT KILL 65 

stage life, there is little wonder that many feel 
safer in refraining from all connection with it. 

An incident in point comes from the life of 

Jenny Lind, who left the stage some years before 

her power as a singer had waned. 

jenny in s Sitting One day by the seaside, 

estimate '^ ^ j •> 

the Swedish nightingale, Madame 
Goldschmidt, was asked by a friend why she had 
left the operatic stage. The sun was hanging low 
in the west, and the talented singer sat with a 
Swedish Bible upon her lap. Looking thought- 
fully at the Book on her knee, and then toward 
the golden glow of the sunset, she replied, " "When 
that life made me think less of this," — putting 
her finger on the Bible, — " and nothing at all of 
that," — pointing to the distant sky of red and 
gold, which verily seemed like the gates of 
heaven, — " what else could I do but give it up ? " 
The life of sport and pleasure has not been con- 
tent with robbing the mind and soul of its finer 

furnishings, but has jeopardized 
. ^^'^ , ° human Life as well. The gladia- 

circus life ° 

tors in the Eoman arena are not 
the only ones who have faced death for the enter- 
tainment of the public. In present times it is 
quite popular to risk life in thrilling exhibitions. 
The parachute leaps, the loop-the-loop riding, ani- 
mal-training, tight-rope walking, and kindred 
amusements have as an interesting feature the 
elements of risk and daring. And many of these 



66 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

startling entertainments end in disaster for those 
employed. Some twenty years ago a woman 
gymnast in a great circus was chief actor in a 
spectacular performance in which she was appar- 
ently shot from a cannon. Simultaneously with 
the discharge of the powder, a strong spring was 
released which sent her plunging headlong into 
the air. Death was finally the result of her 
hazard. A certain traveling troupe had for its 
star entertainer an actor who shot an apple from 
his wife's head. There were many who thought 
that the fall of the apple, in response to the dis- 
charge of the revolver, was accomplished by some 
sleight-of-hand trick. In the early 80's, however, 
while performing in Cincinnati, the actor actually 
shot his wife in the head in the process of the act. 
No more startling performances are given than 
the dangerous risks taken by animal-trainers in 
the handling of their ferocious 

Risks of ani- i . mi i u 

beasts. Though some may have 

mal-trainers ° , *' 

thought that wild animals are 

drugged before a performance, or that teeth or 

claws are drawn, such is not the case. Those 

who handle wild animals constantly take their 

lives in their hands for the entertainment of the 

audience. A lion-trainer, who used to drive a 

herd of twenty-seven lions into the arena, suffered 

the penalty one day at Coney Island, when a 

huge brown lion struck savagely at his head and 

shoulders, and in a moment more he was fighting 



SPOETS THAT KILL 67 

for his life. His right arm was terribly mutilated 
before he could be rescued, and then followed a 
long year of nerve-racking pain with three or four 
serious operations. 

The dangerous character of wild beasts is 
heightened, we are told, by that which appears 
to be weakness on the part of human beings who 
come near them. Instances are related of lion- 
trainers who have lost their power over the wild 
beasts in their charge by appearing before them 
in an intoxicated condition. A showman once 
told me of an experience he had had with an ele- 
phant that manifested great signs of anger when 
a drunken man came near him. The showman 
was obliged to get the man away at once, for 
nothing made the elephant more dangerous than 
the presence of such an individual. 

!N^ot alone where wild beasts are defied by rash 
trainers, or where nature's laws are set aside by 
foolhardy risk, do we find dangerous sport. 
Modern athletics furnishes at least one game 
which has had wide condemnation as a bearer of 
death and physical hurt. 

Football has a long list of sorrowful accidents 
associated with its history. For several years 
past the writer has kept a record 
^ J. . of the newspaper reports of foot- 

ball fatalities. Allowing even for 
some exaggeration on the part of sensational re- 
porters, the figures are damaging testimony 



68 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

against the game. The number of deaths re- 
ported for the season of 1905 was 20, and the 
seriously injured 184. According to the papers, 
the season ended with a "well-nigh universal 
chorus of denunciation." And this after Presi- 
dent Roosevelt had conferred with the coaches of 
the leading teams, with a view to eliminating the 
dangerous features of the game ! The deaths re- 
ported for the years 1908 to 1914 inclusive are 
110, and the injuries total 1,T36.* It is not to be 
wondered at that some schools have at various 
times abolished the game, and that, even among 
the best friends of athletics, there has been much 
disapproval of football rules. Year by year 
efforts have been made to secure football reform, 
as we shall see later, and not without some results 
of real value. 

The useless sacrifice of life on the field of sport 

is usually checked in a local degree when a death 

occurs. A small western college 

°°. '^ of this writer's acquaintance did 

a price ^ 

not have a football team for sev- 
eral years after a football death occurred on their 
team. Every one remembered young Serf, an in- 
tellectual and popular student, and out of respect 
to him the college maintained, for the period indi- 
cated, its opposition to the dangerous sport. 

The author will not soon forget the story of the 
death of a strong young fellow from football in- 

' New York W^orld Almanac for 1915. 



SPOETS THAT KILL 69 

juries, which came to him from the lips of the 
broken-hearted father. He was his father's only- 
son, and the old man was proud of him. Coming 
home one day, the boy told his father and mother 
that his high-school team was to play a neighbor- 
ing high school. The parents had previously ob- 
jected to the game ; but, waving aside their re- 
monstrances, the son said, " Oh, I am strong, and 
it won't hurt me." And he was strong, for he 
resembled his father in physical characteristics, 
being just as tall, and of a weight that made him 
ideally built for the game. A reluctant consent 
was given, after a promise on the part of the boy 
that he would cease to play the game after this 
engagement. " Yes, father," said he, " this will be 
my last game." In the scrimmage that day, Fred 
was under the pile, and when the other players 
got off he did not rise. They took him from the 
field disabled, to the home a little over a mile dis- 
tant, and for twelve days he lay between life and 
death. He was injured internally, and wasted 
away until death claimed him. And the old man, 
when telling the story, added in a choking voice, 
as he looked at the picture of his boy in the best 
room of the home, " It was his last game, just as 
he said." 



CHAPTER V 

THE GAMBLING MAOTA 

The excessive devotion to certain forms of play 

has culminated in the vice of gambling. The 

gambling mania is widely preva- 

ong-prev en ^^^^ ^^ ^^ Country at the present 

vice . •' '^ 

tmie, and its multiplied forms 
seem to warrant the assertion of Mulhall, the 
English statistician, that " Americans have reduced 
gambling to a science, and carry it on in a most 
gigantic way." The system of robbery perpetrated 
by the gambler's art, and the frequency of these 
unlawful indulgences, are prone to make men 
think that the vice was never so generally prac- 
tised as now. But history reveals the fact that 
the game of chance and the desire for unlawful 
gain by its use have long been prevalent among 
the races of men ; and the habit to-day, while 
wide-spread and harmful, falls far short of the 
avidity with which it was practised by the people 
of earlier times. 

This vice, so alarmingly present among the 
ancients, has been found in excess as well among 
later peoples supposed to be much farther ad- 
vanced in their ethical standards. The lottery, 

70 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 71 

for instance, was once the means of raising money 
for very respectable uses. We are told that the 
first lottery of which the world has any reliable 

record was carried on in England 
The lottery at the door of St. Paul's Cathedral, 

in January, 1569. We are some- 
what surprised and shocked to learn from the 
records of the past that Harvard College used the 
lottery to add to its funds in 1794, and that 
Faneuil Hall, when burned in 1T61, was rebuilt by 
the assistance of a lottery. The Louisiana State 
Lottery, a later-day memory, was probably 
planned after lotteries of England which were so 
often used to raise public money. 

Since the gambler's game is very old in char- 
acter, we naturally find the instruments of the 

art in very early times. Groos' 
IS ory o mentions that among: the Greeks 

dice . ° 

peculiarly shaped bones from the 
ankles of sheep, goats, or calves, called astragali, 
were used. They were four-sided, and might rest 
on any of the four sides. Both oblong and cubic 
dice are found among ancient peoples, and it is diffi- 
cult to tell which is the earlier of the two kinds. 
Children of the Grecian cities of the West played 
with the astragali, and they were also in common 
use in Damascus, the oldest remaining city of the 
East. In the Berlin Museum there are oblong 
dice from both India and China. Siamese 

' Karl Groos, Play of Man, p. 209. 



72 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

youngsters of the present day play with shells, 
tossmg them in the air after the manner of dice, 
the contested point being decided by whether the 
closed side is up or down. Divination was prac- 
tised by lot. The Bible contains allusions to this, 
and the Iliad tells of the multitude who waited 
worshipfully while dice were cast into Agamem- 
non's helmet to decide who should go forth to fight 
Hector. Tacitus says that the German priests 
used to throw dice upon a white cloth as an aid to 
forecasting future events. 

A very early origin may likewise be attributed 

to playing-cards, which, in association with dice, 

have ever been prominent gam- 

J blinff instruments. Who first in- 

cards ° 

vented cards will probably never 
be certainly known. Various European countries 
claim to have been the first to use them. Like 
chess, to which many assert they are related, they 
are supposed to be of Eastern origin. It is said that 
they were introduced into Europe by those return- 
ing from the Crusades. They were then called 
Tarots, or Tarocchi. Others say that the new 
game was introduced into polite society by the 
Gypsies, who used them in fortune-telling. Both 
cards and chess are believed to have been known 
among the Saracens and Arabians from the be- 
ginning of the twelfth century. China claims to 
have invented cards in 1120, and to have had them 
in general use by 1131. Their tradition tells us 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 73 

that they were invented for the amusement of the 
wives of the Emperor Leun-ho. 

Chess, as well as cards, was in early times 

played for a stake. The game has a very ancient 

origin, and was possibly a pic- 

rigin o torial or imaginative reproduction 

CllGSS 

of the battle-field, on v^hich con- 
tending armies vied for supremacy. An inter- 
esting tradition concerning the origin of the game 
says that it was first played for the amusement of 
an Oriental king, with lim7ig figures, who were re- 
quired to move at command from one to another 
of the large squares of a tiled court, while the 
balconies around held those who watched the 
game. Such a game was evidently so complex 
and cumbersome that the living figures gave 
place to pieces of appropriate form, made of 
wood or ivory. 

The story of the living chessmen reminds us 
that living objects have also been common in all 
parts of the world as the instruments of gambling. 
The cock-fight, the bull-fight, the prize-fight, the 
horse-race, — all these have been the means of loss 
or gain to uncounted multitudes. The Greeks 
bred game-cocks with great care ; Tangara, 
Ehodes, Chalcis, and Delos are named as having 
especially celebrated breeds. During the Middle 
Ages many European cities had their cock-fights 
where betting was rife, and in numerous places 
such conditions have continued to later times. 



74 CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

On the American occupation of the Philippines, 
cock-fighting was found to be a prominent sport 
of the natives. 

A writer on social conditions in the Orient 

says, " Gambling is in the very atmosphere of 

the East." With all the devas- 

^^^,. tatinff immoral influences of to- 

gambling ° 

day, it is probable that recent 
times cannot show more serious conditions than 
were common in the earliest days when gambling 
knew not the restraints of law and high moral 
standards. The subtle charm of gambling among 
the ancient Germans, Tacitus tells us, was such 
that when they had lost everything else they 
would stake their freedom, and even their lives, 
upon the last throw. Another writer gives a 
long list of illustrations from German life, in 
which the clothes upon the backs of the players, 
their freedom, and that of their wives and chil- 
dren, their own lives, and even the salvation of 
their souls were all risked in the passion for play. 
In support of the statement that gambling is a 
universal Aryan trait, Groos mentions the Indian 
poem of JS^ala and Damayanti. Nala, under the 
control of a hostile demon, loses, while gambling 
with Pushkara, his ornaments, his jewelry, his 
horses, his wagons, and his clothes. For months 
the reckless playing goes on, his wife and follow- 
ers meanwhile trying to restrain his madness. He 
loses all his property and finally his kingdom. 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 75 

Pushkara, laughing loudly at his rival's condition 
and his evident discomfiture, cries out to him to 
put up his wife, Damayanti. But IS'ala, now 
come to his senses, rises from the table, and, 
stripped of everything else, walks away with his 
faithful consort. 

The prevalence of gambling in modern life 
causes grave concern among those who are work- 
ing for the uplift of social con- 
ditions. The sporting life of 
America to-day is so interwoven 
with the shoddy fabric of the gambling habit, 
that it is difficult to find the genuine article. 
Games that are otherwise helpful have been ren- 
dered damaging to character by the ever-present 
temptation to betting. Baseball, which has been 
brought to such scientific perfection so far as the 
details of the game are concerned, is so constantly 
attended with this vice that a considerable number 
of the crowd of onlookers have only a selfish and 
financial interest in the game. Dr. Harvey W. 
Wiley, a prominent Harvard graduate of 1873, 
and recently in government employ, spoke at a 
public meeting a few years ago of his attendance 
at an intercollegiate ball-game. He said that 
every collegian he met seemed to have a bet on 
the game, and that he himself was asked in a 
casual way how much he " had on it." Not only 
is this gambling carried on at the game itself, but 
the public at large is keeping track of the game's 



76 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

progress through the nmch-demanded " sporting 
edition " of the daily newspaper ; and each game 
causes the transfer of large amounts of money, 
though the ones participating in the gambling 
may be far from the actual scene. Other out- 
door sports, too, are made the instrument of the 
wager, and games otherwise clean thus become the 
prey of the lawless. 

The society life of our cities is pervaded by the 

same spirit of unlawful gain, for the parlors of 

the rich are full of those who are 

gambling for stakes of various 
society o ° 

sizes. A New York paper tells 
the story of the raiding of a social club at Narra- 
gansett in the early hours of Sunday morning, 
where a gambling-game was going on among 
several of the prominent men and women of the 
summer resort. The gambling instruments were 
seized and the game was broken up. The leading 
society women composing the company pleaded 
that their names be kept from the public. This 
little picture of evil in high society gives but a 
faint idea of the devotion of the masses in the so- 
called respectable circles to the roulette- wheel and 
the gambler's paraphernalia. As a result of this 
surrender of womanly instincts to the gambling- 
craze, various leading newspapers have roundly 
denounced the women who spend their time in 
"bridge whist" or "euchre" to the neglect of 
the better associations of home and family life. 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 77 

Eace-track betting is a favorite form of amuse- 
ment. Indeed, racing is so closely associated with 

gambling that when the move- 
The race- .-.■,..• 

ment against bettmg was on m 
New York under Governor 
Hughes' administration, the racing-men said 
plainly that if gambling were prohibited the 
racing too must stop. The Jockey Club issued a 
pamphlet entitled, The Truth About Racing, 
which said, " The question of betting on horse- 
racing is one of morals ; " and reasoned, " There 
is no more element of immorality in betting upon 
a thoroughbred test of speed than is connected 
with election-betting, wagers on poker and bridge 
whist, or speculation upon the rise and fall in the 
price of stocks." 

Thus do we find the various forms of gambling. 

And doubtless each participant in his particular 

kind of sport has persuaded him- 

eginmng ^^ ^j^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ worse " than 

to gamble 

some other indulgence of which 
he is not guilty. The beginnings of the gambling 
mania are found in child life ; such as " match- 
ing " or " tossing " pennies, or the playing of 
marbles "for keeps." Concerning the latter, it 
may be of interest to note that Judge Kendall, of 
Washington, D. C, has handed down a decision 
declaring it to be gambling. From gambling for 
pennies or marbles the transition is easy to the 
card-game with the " penny-ante " and then on to 



78 CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

games for higher stakes, and still later to the 

poker-game and the equipment of the modern 

gambler. 

The fact that gambling is usually hidden from 

the eyes of the public, and evades, with Satanic 

skill, the officers of the law, is 

,, , sometimes inclined to make the 

methods 

general public believe that little 
of it exists. But investigation will reveal that 
nearly every country community has its private 
coterie who nightly gather about the gaming- 
tables in secluded places ; while in the large cities 
the deadly infatuation possesses the multitudes. 
The secrecy attendant upon the vice of gambling, 
and the adventurous spirit which invests it in the 
minds of adolescent boys, make them the easy 
prey of the professional gambler. It is in the 
adolescent period that boys are found engaged in 
the game for a small money-stake. Often these 
young fellows are from the so-called " best fami- 
lies " of the city. 

l^ot long ago I was in the capital city of a cer- 
tain western state. It is a city especially noted 

for its intellectual advantages, and 

A high-school . , ., , „ ., , , 

, , , , . prides itseli upon its moral atmos- 

boys poker-club ^ ^ 

phere. A friend of mine, — closely 
associated with the uprooting of evil from the 
city and the state, — asked me if I should like to 
see the rendezvous of a band of high-school boys, 
who frequently gathered for their quiet poker- 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 79 

game. The high-school secret society is prohib- 
ited in this city ; but, evading the officers and dis- 
obeying the school authorities, the boys had 
secured for their meeting-place a room in one of 
the large office-buildings. The outside door gave 
no sign of what was within. Each member was 
admitted by a peculiar knock, known only to the 
initiated. Though we were not members of the 
fraternity, my friend took me to a place from 
which the whole interior of the room was visible. 
It was unoccupied at the time. A very dirty 
carpet covered the floor. On the wall were pic- 
tures of various degrees of lewdness. In a promi- 
nent place hung a skull and cross-bones, with the 
Greek letter name of the order on a pennant near 
by. Several chairs were scattered around the 
room. In the center was a small table on which 
lay a deck of cards, with a pile of poker-chips, 
partly on the table and partly on the floor. Over 
the floor were strewn tobacco-sacks, cigarette stubs, 
and various debris. In the clandestine associations 
of this unkempt place some of the boys of the best 
families were taking their first lessons in gambling. 
It would not seem necessary to argue that the 
moral influence of such practices as we have 
briefly outlined is dangerous to 

A menace to i i ^ i 

personal character and menacma: 

society ^ ° 

to society. The breakdown of 
the devotees of the various forms of gambling is 
noted by those who come into contact with its 



80 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

effects. A number of years ago Superintendent 
of Police Byrnes of E"ew York City said, "We 
are sending men to prison right along on account 
of the race-gambling craze." The New Yorh 
Times a few years back devoted a column article 
to the " Victims of the Kace-Track." A long list 
of forgeries and embezzlements was given, all at- 
tributable to gambling. Chauncey M. Depew 
says : " A considerable portion of failures in busi- 
ness, and ninety per cent, of the defalcations and 
thefts are due to gambling." 

Doubtless the story of ruin which was told in 
the recent confession of a defaulting bank-cashier 
is but one of the thousands of such recitals that 
might be given. He said : " The Saturday I left 
the bank for the last time, I took with me $7,900 
that was not mine. I knew that the bank-exam- 
iner would be around next week, and that I would 
have to make a semi-annual statement, when an 
apparent shortage of $13,000 would be discov- 
ered. Therefore I took the money, determined if 
possible to make up my shortage. I went to the 
only place where I knew that money could be 
made quickly, for I had no time to lose. I went 
to a gambling-house and played roulette. I won 
and lost and won again. Finally chance seemed 
to be turning in my favor. I had in front of me, 
in chips and money, the $7,900 and $3,000 be- 
sides. It seemed to me the time had come to 
strike, and I struck. I put up everything I had. 



THE GAMBLING MANIA 81 

The wheel went round and round and I grew 
dizzy watching it. The little ball dropped into one 
of the niches, — and I had lost. That was the end." 
The varied forms of gambling are alike de- 
structive to the better things of character. The 
gambler loses interest in those 

Disastrous to , t v i-i i -i • j: -i 

whom he should love ; his family 

crtsr&ctcr 

circle, his wife and children, — all 
are secondary to his plundering art. It saps the 
soul of the principles of honesty, and undermines 
the otherwise noble character. Selfish interest 
and a blind devotion to the habit that is proving 
his destruction lure the gambler on. The counsel 
of his best friends, the principles of true manhood, 
regard for law and decency, and love for God and 
man, are all consigned to the scrap-heap of a for- 
gotten past. He rushes to his destruction. He 
has not even the miser's regard for money, for 
the stakes are easily won, and often it matters 
little to him when they are lost. JSTot even life 
itself is sacred, for the gambler hesitates neither 
to spill the blood of his fellow-man, nor to cast 
away his own life when in despair or danger. 

The blasted hopes and wrecked characters of 
those who follow the goddess of play to final de- 
struction are depicted in the stories 
rea i g ^^^^ come from the celebrated 

the supply 

Monte Carlo. Beautiful for situa- 
tion, but full of danger, is the resort of the tour- 
ist, — that little town of Monaco. Here annually 



82 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

almost uncounted thousands come to view the 
beauties of the luxurious gardens, and to gaze 
upon and perhaps join in with the eager throngs 
who stake fortunes on the turn of a wheel. The 
celebrated preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, was 
once asked by the aggressive and courteous man- 
ager of the famous resort if he had visited their 
wonderful place. The clergyman answered in the 
negative, and explained that, as he did not join in 
such games, he felt that he could not trouble them 
to provide him entertainment as their guest. The 
astute manager replied that such a thought need 
not trouble him ; " for," said he, " thousands visit 
our gardens who take no part in the games ; and 
indeed if it were not for these, we could not keep 
our institution going." 

Such a policy of non-participation would help to 

eliminate the unhappy feature of gambling from 

our American games, and make 

^ "^ for sports that are clean and up- 

course ^ ^ 

lifting. "When pleasure reaches 

the bounds of dissipation, and unites itself to the 
immoral and vile, it is time for those who value 
character above ill-gotten gain to separate them- 
selves from the things that work disaster and ruin. 



CHAPTER Yl 
THE SUPERVISION OF PLAY 

The interests of society demand proper control 
of the normal functions of life. Unrestrained 
good becomes as dangerous to human welfare as 
positive evil. The excesses to which play may be 
carried demand that the amusement life shall 
have proper direction and control. Like every 
other natural instinct it is only of value when 
under such control. 

The attitude of educators, parents, ministers, 

and the multitudes of thoughtful students of social 

betterment, is therefore not the 

Supervision rather i -i •,• <• i i < i 

.u u-u-.- prohibition or play, but rather its 

than prohibition ^ r j 5 

supervision. True, there may be 
some features of the play life, which, like the 
parasitic life of the animal and vegetable king- 
doms, must be cut off and destroyed. But the 
natural function itself should be preserved and 
directed in such a way that its value shall be 
evinced in the larger development of human 
character. 

It has been questioned whether there should be 
any adult interference in child play. Since play 
is a normal process, say some, why not let the child 
follow his own desires ? A few years ago Con- 

83 



84 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

gress was asked for an appropriation for play- 
grounds. The request was denied, one ground of 
objection being that supervised 

Is supervised play , j ^ r\ r^ 

, , play was unnatural. One Con- 

unnatural ? r J 

gressman is reported to have said 
in the debate on the question : " You might as well 
try to teach fishes to swim as children to play." 

In reply to these objections, it is only necessary 
to turn to the experiences of life, both animal and 

human, for our answer. "We find 

A lesson from ,. -i -i . -i <> j- <• 

^ ^. ^ there that the natural functions or 

the birds 

life are supervised by the parent. 
A bird is taught to sing its distinctive song by 
those of its kind. Prof. Scott, of Princeton Uni- 
versity, in his experiments with young birds, 
clearly demonstrated this. Blackbirds' eggs were 
hatched in an incubator and the birds brought up 
by hand. During their infancy they never heard 
the song of the adult blackbird. When they at- 
tempted to sing, they tried to copy the crowing 
of a bantam rooster, which had been frequently 
heard by them, and gave as nearly as possible an 
imitation of the bantam's crow. A song sparrow 
raised by goldfinches took up the song of the gold- 
finch, and forsook its own natural note of melody. 
From such experiments as these it is believed that 
the young copy their song from the parent-bird, 
thus passing it along through generations. 

In this connection, we note also the statement 
made by careful investigators that the song of the 



THE SUPERVISION OF PLAY 85 

sparrow is so different in various parts of the coun- 
try that an expert finds it possible to tell the na- 
tivity of the bird from its song. This fact goes 
to show that birds get their song from their im- 
mediate ancestors rather than by a universal in- 
heritance. Some Baltimore orioles were raised 
without opportunity to mix with their kind. 
When the time came for mating and nest-making, 
they were given pieces of string and straw, but 
they only took them and laid them in a shapeless 
pile. For lack of teaching, they were not able to 
put them together into their usual quaint and beauti- 
ful nest. The mature eagle naturally flies swiftly 
and is at home in the air in storm or calm ; but 
the young eagle has to be pushed out of the nest 
when the time comes to fly. 

The habits of animals are also regulated by 

influences outside of their own volition. The 

otter, so the story goes, was once 

Illustrations from , , . , ,. i i ,i 

. , ,.^ a land-animal entirely : and the 

animal life -^ ' 

young otter, — perhaps reverting 
to early instincts, — has such dread of the water 
that it has to be taken upon the back of the 
mother into the stream. Animals teach their 
young to play as well. The house cat, moving 
her tail that the kittens may jump for it, is giving 
an early play lesson in the capture of a mouse ; 
the old dog, romping with the puppy and show- 
ing it how to grasp and hold its prey, is imparting 
knowledge through the play function. Scotch- 



86 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

terriers in fighting have a certain way of grasping 
the hind leg of the other dog. Il^aturalists have 
noted that the Scotch-terriers not brought up with 
the parent, or among their own kind, do not do this. 
The most common functions of life among hu- 
man beings are under the direction of the parent. 
The satisfying of appetite, the 

Parental direction ,,. ,. ^ i i •. n ^ ^• 

cultivation of habits of cleanli- 

needed 

ness, the manner of creeping or 
walking, the hours of sleep, — all are regulated for 
the child by the parents. The manner of play is 
capable of the same direction, and it is the judg- 
ment of competent authorities that the child who 
does not have this direction suffers in character 
growth. 

Instances are not wanting where the element 
of play in child life has been so largely influenced 

by environment and teaching as 
dren wo ^^ change its character, or even 

did not know ° . , , . , * i i i 

how to play suppress it entirely. A lady who 

visited over one hundred orphan- 
asylums to study the character of the children, 
says that where children were taken young and 
brought to the institution without having the 
advantage of previous association with other chil- 
dren, they were wholly ignorant of the elements 
of play. When playtime came they would rush 
about, push each other, pick up dirt from the 
pavement, and in other ways show that they did 
not know how to play. Mr. E. W. Lord, in an 



THE SUPERVISION OF PLAY 87 

address before the Playground and Eecreation 
Association of America, tells of a Southern lady 
who determined to treat some young mill-opera- 
tives to a visit to her beautiful home in the 
country. Here, away from the incessant toil of 
the factory, they were to have a period of recrea- 
tion and rest. She turned the girls and boys into 
the woods to play, but what was her distress and 
amazement to find that they did not know how 
to play, and were even ignorant of the meaning 
of the word ! The treadmill of toil had stolen 
the elasticity from their steps, and the greed of 
man had bartered away their heritage of youth- 
ful joy. 

Deficiencies have been noted in the play life of 
children raised apart from other children, even 
when the environment has been morally good. 
Dr. Luther H. Gulick gives an example of this : 
A group of missionary's children had lived with 
their parents in a foreign land, apart from other 
children. Their play life had been wholly in 
connection with their parents. While their moral 
ideals were good and the notion of individual 
righteousness seemed well developed, their ideas 
of social righteousness, — the rights of others, — 
were deficient. They lacked the element of 
"team-work" in play, so essential to the devel- 
opment of the true social character.' 

' Dr. Luther H. Gulick, Proceedings, National Playground 
Association, vol. III, p. 293. 



88 OHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOEEATION 

Having thus evidenced that the natural func- 
tions of life are influenced by others, and not 
merely subject to the individual 

Play direction ^-^^ ^^^^^^ -^ -^ ^^^ ^^^ ^f ^^^^^ 

young pelpie ^^ ^^J *^^^ humanity beyond the 

years of childhood needs direction 
and assistance in the recreational life. Indeed, 
there is ho place where the adolescent is more 
likely to go astray than in his amusements. And 
even those older in years cannot but be bene- 
fited by some suggestions as to what is best in 
amusement life, as well as by the setting forth 
of some ways to eliminate the mediocre and 
menacing forms of pleasure from the recreational 
program. 

A generation ago an honest inquirer would 
have found little assistance in a search for sug- 
gestions as to the use of his time outside of work- 
ing-hours. There were plenty to teU him that he 
should work, and some to tell him where he might 
do it ; but few had any significant message as to 
how or where he should play, l^ow, however, 
the earnest desire of the young and inexperienced 
for direction in recreation is being met by multi- 
plied agencies. For the world has awakened to 
the moral value of recreation as a builder of good 
citizenship. Dr. Luther H. Gulick, former Di- 
rector of Physical Education in the l^ew York 
City public schools, voicing the new estimate of 
recreation, says: "The morality of any com- 



THE SUPEEVISION OF PLAY 89 

munity is closely related to the way in which 
people spend their leisure time." 

For the sake, then, of the moral life of the citi- 
zen, and his general effectiveness as a member of 
a social community, it is of great 

fhf TfmoX" ^^^'^^ *^^^ P^^^ ^® ?^^®^ adequate 
picture fi^r"^" oversight and direction. The pres- 
ent censorship of moving-picture 
films was brought about by a committe working 
under the direction of the People's Institute of 
New York City, which several years ago made a 
thorough investigation of the cheap theaters. It 
was found that a quarter of a million people at- 
tended the shows every day. The magnitude of 
the business, and the fact that there was much 
complaint concerning the character of films shown, 
seemed to demand some oversight. Acceding to 
this public demand, as well as to the request of 
film manufacturers and theaters exhibiting the 
films, the National Board of Censorship was 
organized by the People's Institute in 1909. The 
Board is composed of a general committee of rep- 
resentatives from 20 civic organizations, which 
include the People's Institute, the Young Men's 
and Young Women's Christian Associations, the 
Federation of Women's Clubs, etc. Various other 
public-spirited individuals also serve on the general 
committee. From this general committee is chosen 
the Censorship Committee of 105 members. This 
body is divided into five sub- committees, which sit 



90 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOK 

in judgment on the films at least five days in the 
week. 'No member of the Board is connected with 
the moving-picture business, and no voting member 
draws a salary. They all contribute their services in 
the interest of public morality. A statistical state- 
ment furnished by the Board shows that during 
the year ending January 1, 1915, they examined 
a total of 5,T70 subjects for the first time. Of 
these over nine per cent, were returned to the 
manufacturers for suggested changes. Seventy- 
nine subjects were condemned in tofo, and even 
after being remade by the company submitting 
them, 27 were finally rejected. That these neces- 
sary changes represented no small cost to the 
manufacturer is indicated by the fact that the first 
value of the film negatives destroyed amounted 
to over $150,000, while the selling-price of the 
films thus kept off the market totaled more than 
$350,000. 

Very strict rules govern the decisions of the 
Board ; — the obscene, the irreverent, and pictures 
having a deleterious effect upon child-character 
are debarred. Theirs is not an easy task, and 
since the censors are human, they may make mis- 
takes. A comparatively small number of uncen- 
sored films are also being shown throughout the 
country, a few smaller film concerns not having 
submitted to the decisions of the committee. The 
Board issues each week a bulletin of approved 
plays, which is sent out to city officials, social 



THE SUPEEVISIOH OF PLAY 91 

organizations, and individuals. The Kational 
Board encourages the organization of local cen- 
sorship boards, in order that each community 
may have oversight according to its peculiar 
needs. 

Two instances of films passed by the National 
Board of Censors, and " held up " by the authori- 
ties may be given. A picture play was prepared 
on Jules Yerne's Michael Strogoff^ a story of life 
in Siberia. This was passed by the censors, but 
objected to by the Chicago police, they contending 
that the portrayal of the burning out of Strogoff's 
eyes was too gruesome an exhibition of cruelty. 
The method of the preparation of the film was of 
course very ingenious, as the actor representing 
Strogoff was seated with his back to the audience, 
while his captors drew a red-hot iron across in 
front of his eyes, the man blowing smoke from his 
mouth to make the illusion complete. The police, 
however, held up the film the first time it was 
presented. A very forceful picture film. The Fly^ 
presented at Indianapolis, was at first barred out 
because of its objectionable scenes. It was re- 
stored by the city Board of Health, however, on 
account of its educational value. These instances 
show how the vigilance of the law and the active 
moral forces are safeguarding the public morals. 

The regular theater has come in for its share of 
critical examination, and some effort has been 
made to bring it under a stricter moral and legal 



92 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

control. The effect of theatrical life upon child- 
actors, already spoken of, has had legal recognition, 
and in some states laws and court 

Local supervision j • • << i • i . i i 

- ^ decisions lorbid the employment 

of theaters ^ -^ 

of young children on the stage. 
Some smaller cities and towns have taken up the 
idea of a censorship of the plays presented in 
their local theaters. The pioneer in this effort 
was, I believe, Plainfield, N. J. The mayor of 
that city appointed a committee of six to investi- 
gate the amusement places of the town. In order 
that not only actual, but possible conditions might 
be noted, they visited as well the theaters of JSTew 
York City and there viewed the various popular 
plays with the idea of finding out which were 
desirable, and which should be denied entrance to 
their local theaters. The managers of the local 
playhouses willingly co-operated with the com- 
mittee, and when their report was made were glad 
to abide by it. Such a plan of local control of the 
amusement places of the smaller city is enthusias- 
tically recommended by those who have studied 
its effects. 

A new plan of theatrical censorship and control 
is found in the "municipal theater." Such a 

theater is already common in 
th ^ ™"'^^"^ Europe, but Northampton, Mass., 

seems to be the first in this coun- 
try to have taken it up. Through the generosity of 
a prominent citizen, and the united assistance of the 



THE SUPEEVISION OF PLAY 93 

city authorities and the faculty of Smith College, 
located in that city, a company of actors has been 
brought together who are constantly occupied in 
presenting various plays at the municipal theater, — 
a building given for the purpose. The actors make 
their home in the city, having all the benefits of a 
permanent residence and the social recognition of 
the community. The character of all plays must 
be approved by the supporters of the movement 
and popular enough to please the general public. 
The plays are also changed from week to week. 
This arrangement is recommended as most desir- 
able for the actors employed, who are thus 
relieved of constant traveling and given the benefit 
of a permanent home. From the standpoint of 
the community, the results are said to be satis- 
factory. The experiment will be watched with 
interest by those who believe that the theater 
may be purified from objectionable features. Al- 
ready we are told that civic theaters of a similar 
pattern have been started in Pawtucket, R. I., and 
Pittsfield, Mass. 

Eecreation in other lines is also provided under 

municipal control. Several years ago ]^ewark, 

N. J., started a regular municipal 

Newark municipal „ . , i m i <■ > i i 

camp for the poor children of that 
camp ^ ^ 

city. The plan was the outgrowth 
of one-day excursions, the expense of which was at 
first met by popular subscription. Later a Com- 
mittee on Public Outing was appointed, whose 



94 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

members took charge of the annual excursion. In 
1905 a municipal summer camp was organized, 
and the state legislature, by special enactment, 
permitted the city to appropriate $5,000 annually 
for the health and recreation of its sick and needy. 
A farm consisting of eleven and a half acres was 
purchased at Neptune Heights, N. J., near Avon- 
by-the-Sea, and on it the camp was located. 
There are suitable buildings for administration 
and dormitory purposes, and the camp is open dur- 
ing the summer months. From 1,500 to 2,000 
children are yearly entertained there, the expense 
of transportation and care being paid by the city. 
Each child spends a week at the happy retreat, 
and the comfort of the little guests is closely 
looked after. 

Newark seems to be the first city to have 
adopted this excellent outing plan. It deserves 
wide emulation. Newark, like other cities, has 
also taken a large interest in the public playground 
movement, having a Playground Commission ap- 
pointed by the mayor, which maintains two city 
playgrounds, in addition to the number under the 
control of the Park Commission and the Board of 
Education. The playgrounds have in their pro- 
gram of activities such features as industrial 
work, kitchen-gardening, library and game-room, 
athletics and gymnastics, military companies, 
folk-dancing, drills and plays of various kinds. 

The playground movement, referred to previ- 



THE SUPERVISION OF PLAY 96 

ously, is one of the specially commendable fea- 
tures of play supervision. An increasing num- 
ber of these playgrounds are reported from year 
to year. In 1910, 35 cities started 
e p aygroun playp;rounds for the first time : in 

movement jt ./ o ' 

1911, 40 more were added ; in 
1912, 43 ; while during 1913 the children in 70 
cities were given playgrounds. 

Though no summary of the work of the Play- 
ground and Recreation Association of America 
has been published since November, 1913, we 
learn from their circulars that during the year 
preceding April 30, 1914, 11 leading cities in the 
United States, representing a population of 1,500,- 
000, had the assistance of the field-secretaries of 
the Association in establishing recreational sys- 
tems. Twenty more cities, with a total population 
of more than 2,000,000, were also in the midst of 
campaigns for the establishment of year-round 
recreational facilities. Out of 1,050 cities making 
report to the Association, 642 were active in the 
playground movement during the year. It is to 
be regretted that only 83 cities employed play 
leaders for the full twelve months. The belief of 
the Association is that every city needs play cen- 
ters throughout the entire year, and they plead 
for a capable play director in each city, who shall 
give his full time to the work of recreation among 
the young, just as the school-superintendent gives 
his entire time to the work of education. 



96 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

The boards of education in our various cities, 

and the instructors in the public schools have 

united heartily in the playground 

Co-operation of j. tti • j.i n 

.1. \-i- u 1 movement. Lven m the smaller 

the public school 

towns the school playgrounds are 
being equipped with apparatus, and teachers direct 
the play of the children. There is upon the part 
of teachers everywhere the feeling that the school 
must have a closer contact with the recreational 
life of the community, as well as with that of the 
child. Clarence Arthur Perry, of the Department 
of Child Hygiene of the Kussell Sage Foundation, 
asserts that recreation is the point of contact be- 
tween the parent and the teacher. With this be- 
lief in mind, associations similar to the Home and 
School League of Philadelphia, or the Boston 
Home and School Association, have been formed. 
By the aid of these associations the various school- 
buildings are opened as social centers for parents 
and children, with entertainments and social 
gatherings on several evenings of each week. 
This plan seems destined to grow in general 
favor, until school-buildings everywhere shall be 
the centers of safe and supervised play for the 
growing child. 

The oversight of the amusement life of the 
young ought to be in capable hands. When it is 
not, there is a signal failure, which is most dis- 
couraging both to the adult and to the child. A 
certain country village, under the auspices of the 



THE SUPEEVISION OF PLAY 97 

Commercial Club of the place, established a gym- 
nasium and social club-rooms for the boys and 
young men. There was no leader 

Capable leaders -j i j -,1 . j- j.- 

provided, and without direction 

necessary ^ ' 

the endeavor did not prosper well. 
Finding it necessary to have oversight, the busi- 
ness men decided to ask the four ministers of the 
town each in turn to spend an evening as director 
of the recreation rooms. But the boys left one 
by one, and finally the ministers found themselves 
practically alone. One of the boys in confidence 
told the chairman of the committee that "^Ae 
yellows didnH want the ^ pinhead preachers'' huttin' 
in^ Unfortunately the possession of moral quali- 
ties, without other fitness, does not equip one to 
be an overseer of amusements for the young. To 
lead the youth in their recreational life takes 
adaptation to young life, the wisdom and tact of 
natural leadership, with the added charm of an 
upright and manly character. Given these quali- 
ties, with a firm belief in the value of the task, 
the results for good will be tremendous. 

A principle ever recognized by those most 

insistent on the supervision of the play of the 

young is that there should be 

A Wtr 

. . maintained a sympathetic touch. 

essential ^ -^ 

A friend of mine, who has been 
for some time a specialist in boys' club work, says : 
" It is work with boys, and not work for boys, 
that is needed." At first there may not seem to 



98 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOBEATION 

be mucli difference in the expressions, but con- 
sideration will show that the " with " plan repre- 
sents the successful method. In the oversight of 
the play life, the parent, the educator, the minis- 
ter, or whoever may interest himself in the sub- 
ject, must cultivate a close relation to the objects 
of his care. The provision of play facilities in the 
" take-it-and-get-out-of -my -sight " spirit will ex- 
tract the juice from youthful joy, and leave the 
plaint of the modern boy, whose dissatisfaction the 
poet ' has preserved for us in the following lines : 

" My paw he's the bestest man ; he brings me lots of toys, 
And candy, too, and all sich things, what's good for little 

boys; 
He lets me go to circuses and spend my money free, 
He buys me lots of Sunday clothes ; — but he won't play with 

me. 

*' Most every evening after tea, I gets my ball to play. 
And asks my paw to catch it, but he's alius sure to say : 
* Don't bother, son — I'm busy now ; go on to bed,' says he, 
Then I go oS a-wishin' that my paw would play with me. 
******* 

'* Some day when I feel sorter tough, with sand up in my craw, 
And ain't a-skeered of gettin' licked, I'll bet I tells my paw : 
■ Say, Dad, if you jisfc want to be right up-to-date, you see, 
You'd better come down off your perch and learn to play 
with me ! ' 

" I ain't much on philosophy, but I got it on my slate, 
Jist chalked it down in black and white, and feel compelled 

to state : 
Of course, I loves my paw, and then he loves me, too ; but we 
Could love each other better if he'd only play with me.' " 

* W. Helleck Mansfield, Pictures of Memory. 



CHAPTEE Vn 
THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUKD 

A FOEMEE definition of the playground reads, 
" A piece of ground used for recreation ; as, the 
playground of a school." But this definition, in 
view of the development in organized play in the 
past decade, must be considerably enlarged in 
order fully to convey the thought expressed by 
the word to-day. 

The playground was once almost inevitably 

associated with the school. It was a piece of 

ffround, varying in size from the 
The old-time ^ \ ^ % u^ ^ ^ ■, 

remnant of a city block to two or 

playground . '' 

three acres in extent, which was 
left over after the best of the available space of 
the school-property had been covered with build- 
ings, walks, and other accessories of the school. 
It was an incidental thing, where over-abundant 
childish energy might expend itself, with a view 
to making the pupil more contented in his tasks 
as well as more tractable during school-hours. 

The playground of the present is not always 
associated with the school. Indeed, the largest 
play interests of our leading cities are outside the 
control of educational authorities. "While the va- 

99 



100 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

rious boards o." education provide for the play of 
the child as liberally as space and funds wiU per- 
mit, and together with the school- 

The modern • x j. n j.i j. 

instructors are fijenerally the most 

playground ° '' 

earnest sympathizers with the play 
movement, it has been found necessary to supple- 
ment the insufficient school playgrounds with 
the broader play facilities under public control. 
Therefore the public playground is becoming an 
increasing feature of city life. 

Many living in the open country, where space 
is abundant, and where natural playgrounds are 

everywhere, have little thought 
real nee concerning the cramped conditions 

children ^^ ^^^® ^^ ^^® great centers of popu- 

lation. ITo one suffers more from 
this congestion than the city child, and especially 
the child of the poor. The street affords the only 
open place in which to play, and this is a source 
of both physical and moral danger to the child. 
The recognition of this fact has resulted in the 
forbidding of play in the streets of many of our 
large cities. 

But with all the legal restrictions, the children 
are not deterred from play even where the danger 
is greatest. The breaker-boys in the mining re- 
gions of Pennsylvania play around the scene of 
their labor, and often meet with accidents. The 
excuse given by the management is that such ac- 
cidents are not the result of child labor, but usu- 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 101 

ally occur when work is temporarily suspended 
and the boys are at play. Thus the city child is 
hemmed in by the restrictions of law, labor, and 
physical environment. ]S"o wonder that a group 
of Chicago boys, appealing to a social worker for 
playgrounds, said, " We haven't any place to play. 
We can't play in the schoolyard ; we aren't al- 
lowed to play in the street ; if we play in the 
brickyard, the cop drives us off." When the law 
and those in authority seem to do all in their 
power to repress a natural and innocent desire, it 
is not to be wondered at that the street boy re- 
gards the police as his enemy, and early becomes 
antagonistic to law. 

Better conditions, however, are now prevailing 

in many of our cities. Playgrounds are being 

equipped at large cost for both 

e p aygroun ^.^^ ^^^ Supervision. The most 

of Chicago ^ 

complete play provision which 
any city has yet made for its youth is the series 
of playgrounds in the South Parks of Chicago. 
These resorts, in which both old and young may 
enjoy themselves, are located in a chain of 23 
parks, covering 2,500 acres, or four square 
miles. They give social diversion to the more 
than YOOjOOO people in that district, and were 
provided at the immense cost of $17,000,000. 
Here are found fields for baseball, football, tennis, 
and other popular outdoor games ; facilities for 
boating and aquatic sports on Lake Michigan ; a 



102 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

wading-pool, a duck-pond, grounds reserved espe- 
cially for little folks, indoor gymnasiums, floral 
conservatory, etc. ; while in winter, skating, curl- 
ing, toboggan-sliding, and other appropriate sports 
may be indulged in. A complete summary of 
sports enjoyed is almost impossible ; suffice it to 
say that competent judges pronounce these play- 
grounds to be " unparalleled in equipment and 
scope." The success of these grounds has caused 
both the Lincoln Park and West Park Commis- 
sions widely to increase their play facilities. 
This broad provision for recreation, in addition 
to the system of playgrounds in connection with 
the schools, is meeting the needs of the Chicago 
city child in a most satisfactory manner. 

New York City first awakened to the municipal 

playground movement in 1898, five years after 

Chicago had established its first 

aygroun wor playground. It now has 372 play 

in other cities r j o l ./ 

centers, the greater number of 
which are under the control of the Board of 
Education, only about 100 being supported by 
municipal and private funds. Baltimore owes its 
splendid series of playgrounds in part to the 
generous endowment by Robert Garrett, a public- 
spirited college man, whose belief in their value 
made him willing to establish the system in his 
home city. Pittsburgh is spending $2,000,000 in 
parks, modeled after the Chicago plan. Los 
Angeles is using over $60,000 a year to main- 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOTIND 103 

tain and add to its play centers. San Francisco 
was the first city in California to begin play- 
ground work, and though not so active as the 
other cities of its size, is willing to expend about 
$80,000 a year to maintain it. 

From a study of the reports of playground 

work, it is evident that the cities in the East 

are much in advance of those in 

the^oudi'" *^® ^®^^' (C^cago excepted), in 

the earnestness with which they 
devote themselves to this cause. The part of the 
country most indifferent to the movement is mani- 
festly the South. Dr. Henry S. Curtis, General 
Secretary of the Playground and Eecreation As- 
sociation of America, notes this when he says : 
" The greatest need of the whole country, how- 
ever, is undoubtedly the section below Mason and 
Dixon's line, where the school-terms are much 
shorter than in the Korth, and vacations pro- 
portionately longer ; where the child-labor laws 
are now turning out thousands of children from 
the factories ; and where all social movements are 
conditioned by the race problem, the intense heat 
of the summer, and the comparative, though rap- 
idly diminishing, poverty of southern cities." 

The problem of recreation is, however, not con- 
fined to the cities alone, for the towns and coun- 
try districts need the help of organized play. In 
the Playground Association statistics for 1913, 40 
cities under 5,000 population are shown as having 



104 OHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

supervised playgrounds. It is not complimentary 

to public interest in the endeavor to note 

that in 31 of these cities it was 

In the smaller , ^..11 

necessary to support the play- 
grounds wholly by private funds ; 
— indeed scarcely any reports show the work 
maintained without private contributions. On the 
other hand, however, it is a favorable mark of in- 
terest that private funds should be so readily 
found to carry on a work in which public spirit 
was lacking. No doubt there are many towns 
where work has not yet commenced that need only 
the inspiration of some interested individual who 
shall set the ball to rolling, to make the supervised 
playground become a reality. 

It is quite possible that the expense of apparatus 
often deters the interested sponsor of the play- 
ground from attempting play or- 

Practicable in • .• • 1 • -j. a 

,. . ffamzation m his community. A 

country districts ° • , -r» p 

recently published article by Prof. 
William A. McKeever, a versatile educator of 
Kansas, gives helpful suggestions to the country 
school-teacher on the equipment of a country 
schoolhouse playground. Its suggestions are ap- 
plicable also to the small town playground which 
must be started on an economical basis. 

The " giant stride " is made by using the dis- 
carded wheel of an old farm- wagon, or any 
similar iron wheel, attached to its spindle. The 
wheel should be adjusted firmly to a 16-foot pole 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 105 

set in a cement socket three and a half feet in the 
ground. Four ropes are hung from the rim of the 
wheel with large loops at the bottom, reaching on 
a level with the waist-line of the child. An ex- 
cellent sandbox may be easily made, and some one 
can often be found to haul the sand for nothing. 
Hope-swings may be hung from trees, or from a 
heavy cross-beam made of 6-inch pine timber, 
supported by firm upright beams set in cement. 
Placing the uprights 12 feet apart, there will 
be room for three swings, the ropes at the top 
being three feet apart, with 2-foot seat- boards 
below. 

A toboggan-slide is made by using a 12-foot 
plank two inches thick, which should be smooth 
and well planed. Place this, with the grain run- 
ning down, one end on the ground, the other on a 
firm crosspiece at an appropriate height above the 
ground, A strong ladder should be placed so that 
it may be easily climbed to reach the upper end of 
the board. The board should be covered with a 
heavy coat of floor wax. When this improvised 
slide, is ready for use, it furnishes fun that is 
guaranteed to delight the heart of every young 
American who uses it. Where there is a some- 
what steep incline upon the grounds, a slide of 
greater proportions may be made. Stretch 100 
feet of f-inch wire cable between two firmly set 
posts or trees. Have the cable run about six feet 
from the ground down the slope. Get two 



106 OHAEA.CTEE THEOUGH EEOEEATION 

Y-shaped iron straps, and connect them to two 
small trolley- wheels. Place the trolley-wheels on 
the cable, attaching to the lower end of the Y's a 
small swing-seat or crossbar. On this the player 
sits and goes down the lightning slide with all the 
joy that rapid motion brings to the child. A 
bumper at the lower end, made of a number of 
sacks stuffed with straw, provides a safe landing. 
These suggestions, with others that may be 
evolved by the resourceful individual, will permit 
a small playground to be equipped at very 
moderate cost. 

JSTo doubt much may be accomplished in the 
provision of play opportunity without manufac- 
tured equipment at first. Many 

A " Community i i -ii 

pj „ games are played with no ma- 

chinery but a quick brain and 
willing hands and flying feet. "When the present 
great awakening in playground work was in its 
infancy, a certain rural community in northwestern 
Pennsylvania originated a " Community Play 
Day," which is still a source of much pleasure and 
profit. The man who was the father of the idea 
noted the disposition of the young to leave their 
country homes to find more fun in town. He 
observed, too, that young married folks seemed to 
be losing their youthfulness, and that there was 
apparently no bond of common interest among 
parents, grandparents, and children. To overcome 
these conditions and relieve the general pleasure 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 107 

poverty of the rural community, the play day was 
instituted. 

On the day selected for the gathering, the folks 
may be seen coming from every direction in their 
own conveyances, — for the nearest railroad station 
is six miles away, — and, arriving at the place ap- 
pointed, they spend the time from nine in the 
morning until five in the afternoon in play and 
social enjoyment. Ko swearing, smoking, or 
drinking is allowed on the grounds. When the 
noonday meal is spread under the trees, and all 
have done it justice, a number of old-time songs 
are sung and inspiring short talks are given, — 
talks on good citizenship, right living, and home 
life ; and then, with a closing song, the games are 
again taken up. When the sun is sinking behind 
the distant hills, the widely separated families are 
on their homeward way, tired and happy, looking 
forward to the next play day a month away. No 
wonder that neighborhood feuds are forgotten, 
that gossip gives way to glee, and that all find a 
renewal of youth and energy in the plain and 
simple enjoyments of such a democratic gathering. 

Still greater results than those accomplished in 

that neighborhood by an occasional day of play 

are found to accompany the sys- 

Physical value of , ,. ^.• •• p -i ^ 

^ , ^ tematic cultivation of the play 

the playground *^ -^ 

habit among both old and young 
by means of the playground and recreation center. 
The outdoor life of the playground commends it 



108 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOEEATION 

at the very first as a place of physical benefit. 
Dr. Henry B. Favill, of the Chicago Tuberculosis 
Institute, a prominent authority on the treatment 
of the disease, says that the playground is one of 
the best means for preventing the spread of the 
white plague, because of the physical exercise 
afforded the child under environment favorable to 
health. The open-air treatment is the natural 
cure for tuberculosis and the healer of a thousand 
child ailments that result from the closeness of in- 
door life. The muscles are developed and the 
nerves rested and refreshed by the care-free, 
though vigorous, exercise of the playground. 
The element of safety in the play of the child 
must also be considered. Street play is elimi- 
nated, and the distressing accidents so often oc- 
curring are avoided. In ten days the newspapers 
of our country reported 22 children killed and 95 
injured in automobile street accidents. A bright 
little fellow at Edgewater, 1^. J., coasting down- 
hill two years ago, was killed by an automobile. 
As a result of his death playgrounds were estab- 
lished in that town. 

The playground is a distinct intellectual ad- 
vantage to the child. The city child especially 
finds a touch with nature that 

Intellectual , ■, . ,. p .i u 

makes his notion of the world 

advantage 

and its beauty more concrete. A 
mission worker told her Sunday-school class the 
story of Adam and Eve, and later asked the ques- 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 109 

tion, " "Where did Adam and Eve hide ? " After 
a pause one small tot answered, " Up an alley." 
If the child had seen one of our modern play 
parks, he would have had a better idea of the 
Garden of Eden. A teacher in a vacation school 
tells of a little girl who asked, " Teacher, have 
you ever rode in a patrol wagon ? My father has 
three times and mother has once, and when I get 
big I'm going to ride in one too." That little 
girl's desire for a " ride " might be satisfied by 
the modern play devices, while the story-hour 
and kindly direction of the lady in charge of the 
children's play would have given her an enlarged 
mental horizon. 

If it be true, as Jane Addams declares, that 
" recreation is stronger than vice," we may hope 

by the moral influence of the 
^ j^ J. playgrounds to lessen the number 

of those who shall ride in the 
patrol wagon when they grow up. The effect of 
the playgrounds on the number of juvenile de- 
linquents is noticeable to those who are in the 
active work of dealing with child offenders. 
Judge Ben Lindsey says : " The playground 
proves to be an economy to the city in that it 
lessens crime among children." An examination 
of the records of the Juvenile Court in Chicago 
showed that, during the first five years of the 
Court's operation, the South Side furnished about 
40 per cent, of the cases. Two years after the 



110 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

opening of the play parks it was furnishing but 
34 per cent. " To put it in another way," said 
Mr. Allen Burns, before the annual meeting of 
the Playground and Recreation Association of 
America, " after the small parks had been operat- 
ing for two years, the South Side alone showed a 
decrease in delinquency of 17 per cent, relative to 
the delinquency of the whole city, while the rest 
of the city had increased its delinquency 12 per 
cent., — a showing in favor of the South Side of a 
difference of 29 per cent, upon the supposition 
that, without the small parks, the South Side 
would have continued to furnish its due quota 
of court-wards as compared with the rest of the 
city." 

The figures concerning the proportion of cases 
in which juvenile delinquents under the care of 
the Court have been successfully reformed are 
also very encouraging. Within one mile of each 
of the large parks, 46 per cent, of the cases prove 
successful, whereas the proportion which prevails 
throughout the city is only 36 per cent. A boy 
of nine who lived in a district devoid of recrea- 
tional advantages was three times before the 
Court. On his third appearance, the Court com- 
mitted him to an institution where the least hope- 
ful cases are sent, and on his dismissal from that 
place the family moved to the vicinity of Lincoln 
Park. The boy used the park constantly as his 
place of pleasure and resort. He was released 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 111 

from court oversight and has given no more 
trouble. 

The agency of play is, moreover, effective in 
the prevention of crime and wrong moral bias. 
It is an unfortunate idea that only the defectives 
need the attention of society, — an idea that has 
caused us much sorrow and financial outlay. The 
playground as an investment for the normal child 
is an incalculable benefit, for play is a great char- 
acter-building agency in the life of the child. 
Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Chancellor of New York 
University, says, " Play counts for morals ; for it 
is in our play that we choose things according to 
our character, and by choosing we make char- 
acter." 

Much testimony might be given from educators 

as to the value of the playground in school-work. 

Perhaps no more concrete results 

, , , have been tabulated reo:ardinff the 

school-work ° ° 

effect of the playground upon 

school-discipline and the truancy problem than 

the experience of a school-principal as given in 

Johnson's Education hy Plays and Games .^ 

In September, 1901, Prof. J. L. Kiley took 

charge of the Elm Street School in Springfield, 

Mass. There were 550 children in the grades 

above the third. Many were from Hebrew and 

Italian homes, living in cramped tenement-quar- 

' George Ellsworth Johnson, Edtication by Flays and Games, 
p. 46 fE. 



112 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

ters, with small yards, no play facilities, and with 
depraved and immoral habits. School-work was 
accordingly tremendously difla.cult. Kear the 
schoolhouse were the courthouse, the city-jail, 
and the fire-bell. The bringing of new prisoners, 
the marching of criminals across the open space 
to the courthouse for trial, or the ringing of the 
fire-alarm, when the pupils were outside the build- 
ing, were each sufficient to empty the schoolyard. 
During the school-session the painted lower win- 
dows of the rooms prevented the sight of the 
police-van, the prisoners, and other external at- 
tractions. For the first year there were recorded 
99 cases of corporal punishment and 281 half-days 
of truancy. Playground facilities were not pro- 
vided, as it was said that all movable play ma- 
terial would be stolen. The principal was un- 
daunted, however, and though the school authori- 
ties would not pay for it, he secured equipment 
for the small yard and organized the play forces, 
with the result that the playground during school- 
hours became immensely popular. It was also 
used before and after school and on Saturdays. 
The fire-alarm and the prisoners no longer had 
charms for the youngsters. A general improve- 
ment in the character of the school was noted, 
and the problem of discipline became less com- 
plex. Corporal punishment decreased 70 to 80 
per cent. The cases of truancy decreased each 
year as indicated by the following record : 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUND 113 

Year ending June, 1901, - - 281 

'' '' " 1902, - - 166 

" " '' 1903, - - 79 

" " '' 1904, - - 46 

'' '' '' 1905, - - 33 

It may thus be seen that the playground has a 
salutary effect upon the character of the indi- 
vidual, whether as a means for the 

Better social , . j. -i , , 

prevention or evil bent or as a 

spirit ^ . • -r^ 1 

cure for incipient crime. But the 
distinct individual advantages of the playground 
are not more evident than the social spirit which 
it creates and fosters. The co-operation required 
in many games, the sense of fair play and equity 
which has to be a part of all directed play, is an 
effective training in citizenship which will be ap- 
plied in after years. The promotion of friendli- 
ness, loyalty, and fellow-interest, as well as the 
democratic character of the playground, help in 
the making of coming citizens. The association 
of the different nationalities and the commingling 
of rich and poor render impossible that race pride 
unworthy of a cosmopolitan nation, and eliminate 
the snobbishness which ill befits a republic. The 
spirit of play fostered by our playgrounds should 
be cultivated among old and young until the 
many who do not work together, or pray to- 
gether, or speak alike, or think the same, should 
meet upon the common ground of clean and inno- 
cent sport. 



114 CHARACTEE THROUGH RECREATION 

A striking assembly for play purposes was the 

scene which served as a fitting finale to the great 

Playground Congress in Pittsburgh 

Play festival at « . . 

j^ a few years ago. An immense 

playground nearly a mile square 
was the scene of the event. The beautiful 
sloping lawns of Flagstaff Hill, the broad ex- 
panse of the golf course, and the high ground 
of Schenley Park at the top of the hill, were 
included in the recreation grounds. The boule- 
vards and streets passing through were closed 
for the day and given over to play purposes. 
One hundred and twenty-five trolley-cars were 
needed to take to the grounds the 18,000 chil- 
dren who had definite parts in the organized 
play. A great crowd of ^0,000 onlookers, — par- 
ents, friends, and strangers, — pressed against the 
ropes that separated them from the play-space. 
Some of these had traveled on foot, others had 
come in their automobiles ; some spoke the lan- 
guage of our fathers, and some the tongues of 
those over the sea ; — but all were interested in the 
child and his play. 

A competitive field-meet engaged the energies 
of the boys, — 2,000 of them in the lists, — at 
Schenley Park. In other places teams of Italians 
contested in bowling-tourneys. Yarious nation- 
alities gave interesting folk-dances. Each school 
or group of players was assigned a special place on 
the great playground. All was gladness and good 



THE PEOFIT OF THE PLAYGEOUI^D 115 

cheer, and the mingling nationalities mutually un- 
derstood each other, for play is the international 
language. In the far distance could be heard the 
rumble of the factories, and the shrieking of the 
locomotive whistles ; but the black smoke of fac- 
tory and furnace could not obscure the picture, 
nor the clamor of busy labor make less evident the 
melody of the festal day. The remembrance of 
the graceful movements of thousands of boys and 
girls and the ringing of their happy laughter will 
linger throughout the years, bidding defiance to 
the tempest of toil and throwing a halo of glad- 
ness over common life. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 

There is a tradition current among old resi- 
dents of Boston that the American Eevolution 
was brought about by the refusal 
,. . of General Gage to let the Boston 

boys play football upon the Com- 
mon. In that struggle for independence, the 
dearly-purchased right to labor or to play with 
none to interfere was won by the boys of '76. 
And patriotism and play are still related to each 
other. 

As Americans, we cannot but plead guilty to a 
widespread misuse of our Independence Day anni- 
versary. Like many of our festal 

For a safe and ^ ■, . ^ ., , j 

^ ^ days, which are so easily perverted 

sane Fourth -^ ' '' ^ 

from their true meaning, the occa- 
sion that should afford an opportunity for the in- 
culcation of the value of the heroic in our history 
has been devoted to activities which, from the 
standpoint of patriotism, are worse than meaning- 
less. An inhabitant of a distant planet, if dropped 
down upon this continent on the Fourth of July, 
would have the greatest diflBlculty to gather from 
116 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 117 

what he would see and hear what the commotion 
was all about. Worse than the dearth of patri- 
otic results from these celebrations has been the 
reckless destruction of human life and the injuries 
which have accompanied these anniversary occa- 
sions. A tabulation of these results in the Journal 
of the American Medical Association shows that 
in ten years, from 1905 to 1914 inclusive, there 
were 1,183 lives sacrificed, and 34,055 wounded.' 
The statement is made that the casualties of our 
Independence Day celebrations have thus far 
greatly exceeded those resulting from the Kevo- 
lution itself. When we consider this needless 
and wicked sacrifice of human life, the great 
economic and social loss sustained, as well as the 
total amount of suffering entailed, we can but 
regret this long-endured reproach to civilization. 

The obvious need of a change in our method of 
the observance of Independence Day has led to the 
newer plans of the " safe and sane Fourth." That 
these newer plans go far toward the solution of the 
problem is evidenced by the fact that the number 
of deaths and injuries has notably decreased in 
the past four years. For instance, 443 deaths 
were reported for the year 1903, while in 1914 
the number was but 40, the largest decrease being 
shown in the states where there was strong agita- 
tion in favor of the new Fourth of July celebra- 
tion. As an illustration of a satisfactory cele- 

* Quoted in the New York World Alnianac for 1915. 



118 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

bration under the new plan, the experience of 
Springfield, Mass., may be here cited : 

It was a little over ten years ago, when, with a 

desire to free itself from the unhappy features of 

the old-time celebration, that city 

How Springfield, j - i £ ^ • j i 

J- J V. undertook a new-fashioned observ- 

Mass., did it 

ance of the old American holiday. 
The first thought of the committee having the 
matter in charge was to eliminate noise and dan- 
ger, — a corrective rather than a constructive pur- 
pose ; but they soon saw that a fine opportunity 
was afforded for the unifying of all the community 
elements in a great civic festival. This feature 
was especially manifest in the large national pro- 
cession which passed through the gaily decorated 
streets on the morning of the festal day. Thirteen 
different nationalities, descendants of the people of 
four continents, took part in the parade, all having 
come from the diverse peoples represented in the 
80,000 population of the city. Historic scenes 
from the national life of these peoples were shown 
by appropriately decorated floats and costumed 
characters. 

Sweden presented a Viking ship, with Leif Eric- 
son in command, sailing toward the new American 
continent. The Scotch were proud to contribute 
Mary, Queen of Scots, in a court-scene with maids 
of honor "and Highland chiefs. The German socie- 
ties portrayed a scene from the life of "William 
Tell, with an allegorical group — Germania and 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 119 

Columbia — attended by Art, Literature, and Music. 
Champlain landing at Quebec from his canoe on 
the St. Lawrence represented the French. China 
had a band of musicians from 'New York City, 
and a beautifully decorated float. Italy was rep- 
resented by a group of her great men, — Dante, 
Michael Angelo, Galileo, Columbus, Yerdi, and 
Marconi. The local Greeks presented Pericles, 
Lycurgus, Socrates, and Plato, with a band of 
fifty young Greeks, each bearing his country's 
banner, with the American flag over all. Ar- 
menia had a float showing the throne-room of 
Abgar, the first Christian king of their country. 
Poland's battalion of soldiery was accompanied 
by a Polish band. The English float portrayed 
the signing of the Magna Charta. Other sug- 
gestive and appropriate floats were contributed 
by various peoples, and the historic scenes of our 
own national life were set forth as well. A sec- 
tion of the parade was devoted to floats made up 
of grammar-school children, presenting such scenes 
as an Indian village, a group of Puritan maidens, 
the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 
Washington Crossing the Delaware, etc. Nearly 
one thousand boys from ten to fourteen years of 
age, — a company for each ward of the city, — 
clothed in special uniforms and armed with 
wooden guns, marched in the parade. 

This picturesque presentation of national life 
w^as a fitting opening to a day filled with amuse 



120 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

ment and inspiration to old and young. At Court 
Square, the civic center, the literary exercises 
were given, with the singing of national hymns 
by the entire multitude, led by the music of three 
combined bands. The morning exercises closed 
with the stirring melody of "My Country, 'Tis 
of Thee," while in the distance the cannon from 
the government arsenal thundered out at the 
noon-hour the national salute of forty-six guns. 
The afternoon athletic and water sports, as well 
as the evening display of fireworks and the street 
illumination, rounded out a day of civic amuse- 
ment which was a veritable revelation to the mul- 
titudes who came within its far-reaching influence. 
This , general celebration of our national holi- 
day has been adopted in other cities with purpose 
and result similar to that of Spring- 

Another com- ^ i i mi • i x- 

. ^ ^^ field. The promiscuous shooting 

munity Fourth ^ ° 

of fireworks has,' in large measure, 
been eliminated, athletic sports having been sub- 
stituted, and the pageant and festal features under 
competent organization have taken the place of 
the individual and unorganized sports. This com- 
bination of purpose and capital has produced a 
better result than could have been otherwise at- 
tained. In one western town a canvass showed 
that 500 families were spending an average of $3 
a family for fireworks. The committee having 
the celebration in charge were able to persuade 
the people to give an average of $1.25 a family 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 121 

to the general celebration fund, "With this money, 
prizes were offered for the most beautifully deco- 
rated home or place of business, and the town 
presented a more festal appearance than ever be- 
fore. Other expenditures were also possible, and 
the result was a community Fourth that was long 
remembered. 

Much previous preparation is necessary for the 

presentation of a successful patriotic parade, but 

the effect produced is worth while. 

e c ive j^ ^^^ town in the West a phys- 

patnotic parade . ^ *' 

ical director was engaged, from a 
near-by city, to drill the boys and girls and other- 
wise assist in planning the celebration. On Fourth 
of July morning " Paul Revere," on a Shetland 
pony, came riding through the streets giving 
the alarm. The boys, who had been previously 
drilled as " Minute Men," came forth from their 
various homes, armed with wooden guns and clad 
in uniforms of brown drilling, which simulated 
the homespun of the Revolutionary times. They 
rallied to the public square, where they were met 
by a " MoUie Pitcher " brigade, made up of girls 
dressed in the national colors, armed with brooms. 
These characters gave two parades, one in the 
morning, accompanied by a juvenile drum-corps, 
and another after the picnic dinner. A pleasing 
drill was also given. In the afternoon various 
historical characters, impersonated by the young 
men and young women of the place, made their 



122 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOK 

appearance in the parade. George and Martha 
Washington were prominent characters ; Thomas 
Jefferson with his Declaration of Independence, 
Betsy Koss with her homemade flag, John Alden 
and Priscilla, and Miles Standish, Evangeline look- 
ing for her lost Gabriel, — all were there ; while 
Patrick Henry, and Aaron Burr, and Alexander 
Hamilton also came forth from the distant past. 
The cost of the entire celebration, — a little more 
than $600, — was not to be compared with the en- 
joyment and genuine benefit derived ; and the day 
w as so full of entertainment that no one regretted 
the absence of fireworks. 

Such festal occasions have as their reward the 

engendering of a national spirit, which is the gist 

of patriotism ; the cultivation of 

The rewards of . . . , i • i • i i <• i . 

^ . . - . , CIVIC pride, which is helpful to 

patriotic festivals ^ ' ^ 

community interest; and the en- 
listing of personal co-operation, which is the nucleus 
of altruistic service. In the case of the historic 
city of Springfield, populated with diverse nation- 
alities, Americans could not help being more ap- 
preciative of their foreign-born citizens after the 
reminder of the intellectual ancestry of which the 
Italians and the Greeks could boast. Upon the 
minds of the foreigners, the lessons of patriotism 
would be more forcibly impressed by these con- 
crete presentations of heroic events, than by the 
multiplied efforts of press, pulpit, and platform. 
The civic importance of so many people's engag- 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 123 

ing in the united effort of such a play festival is 
also not to be forgotten. Such co-operation in 
amusement will help to unite society and create a 
feeling of community interest which is too often 
destroyed by the selfish spirit and class segrega- 
tion of our cities. The amalgamation of a large 
foreign population makes necessary the pictur- 
esque appeal of the historical pageant. The re- 
ligious sentiment, too, is not neglected, for no 
assembly of people can constantly sing the closing 
prayer of our national hymn without a deeper 
recognition of their duty to the God of our fathers, 
who has led America to her place among the 
nations. 

The element of patriotism must be fostered not 
only by the yearly outbursts of Fourth of July 

fervor, but by the frequent recur- 
The historic j? • • n , t i • i 

rence of incidents and scenes which 

pageant 

shall call it forth. An era of na- 
tional peril and warfare might accomplish this, 
but we do not pine for bloodshed. Our history 
has already a wealth of stories of conquest and 
valor, and the records of the pioneers are filled 
with deeds of bravery, the reproduction of which 
will serve to engender the sought-for qualities of 
love of flag and freedom. For the purpose of 
making vivid these scenes of the former days, the 
historical pageant, presenting incidents from our 
own history as well as from that of other lands, has 
become an effective means of patriotic inspiration. 



124 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOE" 

The pageant was revived a few years ago in 
England, and recently has found enormous popu- 
larity in this country. The landing of the Span- 
ish explorer, Ponce de Leon, has been celebrated 
at St. Augustine ; the Huguenots were represented 
in pageant at New Kochelle ; and the anniversary 
of the battle of Lake Erie was celebrated by Perry 
and his flag-ship Niagara making a tour of the 
Great Lakes. The arrival of Henry Hudson upon 
the Island of Manhattan was re-enacted not long 
ago by the children of the schools of New York 
at Croton-on-Hudson. 

Schoolboys impersonating Hudson and his fol- 
lowers, dressed in the old Dutch costumes, were 
greeted, on landing, by similar boy-actors dressed 
as Indians, whose war-whoops were sounded in 
warning to the pale-face trespassers. A council 
of peace, with the passing of the big pipe (filled 
only with " make-believe " tobacco) was next held, 
and the Indians and the pale-face travelers went 
to the Indian village, where a number of little 
girls impersonating squaws waited on the braves 
and miniature Dutchmen. Scenes were afterward 
given, showing the early Dutch settlement and 
the common life of the colonists. The old wind- 
mill and its miller were there, and a school of the 
early times was presented. The whole closed 
with a revel in which all the children, dressed in 
their curious costumes, took part. Care was taken 
to have each feature of this Hudson pageant in 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 125 

strict harmony with the facts of history, that it 
might be a perfect reproduction. The originators 
declare that when it was over the children had 
learned more about the history of their city in a 
few hours than in all their previous school-life. 
Besides, they had had the fun and frolic which 
accompanied the giving of the pageant. 

The pageant and the play festival draw their ma- 
terial not only from the events of history, but 
from that rich idealistic and legendary folklore 
with which the nations are so well supplied. The 
interpretation of the folklore of national life by 
the aid of outdoor acting is recommended for the 
development of larger interest in literature and 
history. On the part of the young especially it 
leads to the asking of questions concerning the 
national and legendary events acted, which are 
open doors to the acquiring of wider knowl- 
edge. 

N"ot long ago new interest was stimulated 
among both old and young in the legendary his- 
tory of the redman by the presen- 
Educationai ^^^-^^ ^^ Longfellow's beautiful 

value of the 

pageant poem of "Hiawatha." Through 

the eilorts of a white explorer, 
Mr. L. O. Armstrong, the interest of the Ojibway 
Indians of Canada was awakened in the story of 
Hiawatha, and they began to enact the play under 
the pine trees and by the lakes of their native 
country. The public heard of these performances 



126 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

and for several years hundreds of people traveled 

to that distant place to see them. On account of 

the inaccessibility of the location, Mr. Armstrong 

brought the players to the former home of the 

Ojibways, with the result that the same play has 

more recently been presented at Yawaygamug 

Lake, near Petoskey, Mich. These scenes of 

Indian life have also been given in open-air 

performance on the Delafleld estate at Eiver- 

dale, K. Y., the actors in this case being Iroquois 

Indians. Various reproductions of " Hiawatha " 

by Indian talent throughout the country have 

given the spectators a chance to catch the true 

Indian spirit and to feel the power of these weird 

stories of the wild. 

A similar awakening of interest in the common 

life of various peoples has been the means of 

arousing that national pride which 

, '. is so stronar an element of patriot- 

dancing ° ^ 

ism. By the use of the folk-dances 
recently introduced into our public schools, the 
child of the foreigner has found a new apprecia- 
tion of the poetry and pursuits of his ancestors, 
while the American-born child has been taught 
the value of the pastoral life of primitive peoples. 
The varied character of these national dances and 
a hint of the manner of their presentation can be 
gained by a description of an after-school play in 
one of the public-school buildings of lower ]S[ew 
York City, here summarized from the book. The 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 127 

Wider Use of the School Plant, by Clarence 
Arthur Perry.* 

It is an afternoon in late spring, and the re- 
flected heat of the hard ground and the pave- 
ments has made the playground in front of the 
school-building an almost deserted spot. In a 
large room on the ground-floor of the building, 
however, a crowd of girls from the third, fourth, 
and fifth grades are beginning their folk-dances. 
Faces which a few moments ago were set and 
stern with the necessity of keeping order now 
break into smiles, and childish spirits bubble up 
in laughter and anticipation. "With one teacher 
at the piano and another acting as marshal of the 
forces, the play begins. Outside are the jangle 
and noise of wagons and trolley-cars as they pass 
hurriedly through streets lined with shops whose 
signs are lettered in Polish, Magyar, Italian, and 
Yiddish. Within the pleasant room, however, the 
outside world is forgotten and the children unite 
in a mutual kinship in the kingdom of play. 

At the striking of a chord on the piano, the 
forty little forms come running down the long 
room. They quickly take positions in parallel 
ranks of five with hands on hips, all facing the 

' Clarence Arthur Perry, TTie Wider Use of the School Plant, 
p. 313 ff. 

Leading works on Folk Dancing are : 

Elizabeth Burchenal, A. B. , Folk Dances and Singing Games, 
Dances of the People ; Jeanette E. C. Lincoln, The Festival Book. 



128 OHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

same way. The tune is an old Swedish air called 
" Keap the Flax." All reach down to the left, as 
if to seize the grain, and then bring the hands up 
to the waist in the motion of reaping. The move- 
ment is repeated several times in perfect accord 
with the music. Thus the motions of reaping, 
stacking, hackling, cording, and finally twisting 
the flax into a single thread, are presented in ever- 
changing figures. The long-twisted thread is rep- 
resented by a long line of girls in single file, each 
with hands on the shoulders of the one ahead, 
swaying from side to side as they circle the room. 
In the concluding figure, four of the girls form a 
square, while a fifth, with running steps, winds 
in and out of the group, illustrating the movement 
of the shuttle in weaving the linen. 

Following this Swedish dance, other character- 
istic portrayals of folklore are given. The Eus- 
sian dance presents as its dominant figure the 
peasant reaching into a bag of seed at the left side 
and sowing it broadcast with an outward sweep 
of the right hand. The " Tarantella," given with 
the added accompaniment of castanets and tam- 
bourines, conveys a vivid impression of the vivacity 
and grace displayed by the Italians on their 
native sward ; while the rapid whirlings, rocking 
movements, and brisk heel-and-toe exercises of the 
athletic Hungarian " Solo," suggest scenes familiar 
to the countryside of central Europe. The Eng- 
lish May-pole dance, too, with the winding of the 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 129 

bright streamers around the pole, reflects the color 
and beauty of the time-honored English festival. 

The effect of the folk-dances, in addition to 

satisfying the child's natural love of rhythTnic 

movement, is said by those most 

Beneficial results ., .i-. i- ,^ . ^ t 

- , , „ ^ interested m teachms; the art to be 

of the folk-dance . ° 

highly beneficial from a physical 
standpoint as well as helpful to the higher ideals. 
The attractiveness of the public dance-hall has 
been decidedly lessened for those having the ad- 
vantage in the schools of the beautiful old-world 
folk-dances. The dances in use have been selected 
with special care, eliminating those which, like 
some of the Indian dances, require too much of 
the stooping position to be healthful physically, or 
the love-dances of the East, which are unsuited to 
the morals of our civilization. The patriotic ele- 
ment is found in the love of the home-land 
engendered by the appeal to the life of the 
fathers, and the sentiment of national kinship 
which comes to those who cherish no traditions of 
connections with a foreign land. The love for the 
old country does not displace, but rather makes 
possible, a kindred devotion to the land of the 
alien's adoption. The appeal to the imagination, 
without which both patriotism and religion must 
die, is also an essential part of the folk-dance. 

This element of imagination, once thought to be 
valuable only as an adjunct to the student of 
literary culture or artistic skill, is not without 



130 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

its place in the study of history, another stimula- 
tor of patriotism. The Bible abounds with ex- 
pressions of patriotism for the Land of Promise, 
and especially for its capital city, Jerusalem. Is- 
rael's great leaders and prophets were all patriots, 
and the stories of their deeds, which were related 
around every hearth, kindled undying loyalty in 
the hearts of the rising generation. A group of 
children around an old soldier, recalling for them 
the experiences of the war of the 
, . ,. , '60's, affords a suff^estion concern- 

patnotic story , ' o° 

ing the inculcation of patriotism in 
the rising generation which should not be over- 
looked. The Story Tellers' League of America, 
which now has more than 16 local branches, and 
influences through its work in street and settle- 
ment and library 120,000 children, is a potent fac- 
tor. While it is more especially concerned with 
the awakening of the childish imagination by the 
use of the legend and purely fictional literature, we 
may surely count as one of its beneficial effects the 
leading of the young mind to the realization of the 
value of the heroic. In like manner will the 
brave deeds of the days of '76 and '61, as well as 
the exploits of the times of peace, secure in young 
minds a glad response of patriotic interest. The 
serious and yet idealistic appeal of Edward Everett 
Hale's story of The Man Without a Country has 
left its impress on many an adolescent youth, and 
has become an American classic. The children 



PLAY AND PATEIOTISM 131 

of foreign- born parents are observed to manifest 
remarkable interest in American history. This is 
evidenced in schools and libraries, where lives of 
Washington, Lincoln, and other great Americans 
are in such constant use that the volumes have to 
be rebound frequently. 

The need of a national hero as the inspiration of 

patriotic fervor has especially been impressed upon 

those who have sought to awaken 

The influence of .• ^ • i j 

^. , . national pride among a down- 

the national hero ^ ° 

trodden people. A lady-teacher in 
government employ in the Philippines said to the 
writer, while on her vacation in this country, that 
the great need of the natives seemed to be a 
national hero, the spirit of whose deeds might in- 
spire in them a national character which would 
make self-government effective. The example of 
Jose Rizal, the talented young patriot who sacri- 
ficed his life in devotion to the dream of national 
independence for his beloved land, seems to furnish 
the necessary inspiration. With this model before 
them it is hoped to lead the natives to the higher 
ideal of patriotism, which is the life-blood of 
liberty. 

Through the kindness of the friend above-men- 
tioned, as well as that of Prof. Austin Craig, the 
compiler of a little book of poems by Dr. Rizal, a 
copy of these literary treasures is now in the hands 
of the author. The spirit which the teachers in 
the Philippines seek to arouse in the hearts of the 



132 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATIOH 

downtrodden people among whom they work is 
the same as that which must be kept alive in the 
hearts of young America to-day. With the aid of 
the pageant, the song, the dance, and the story, 
we endeavor to stir the youth to that loyalty to 
his native land which breathes in the farewell 
message of Jose Rizal, the patriot of the Phil- 
ippines : 

" Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caressed, 

Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost ! 
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best, 
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest, 

Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost. 

" On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of the fight, 

Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed ; 
The place matters not, — cypress or laurel or lily white, 
Scafitold or open plain, combat or martyr's plight, — 

'Tis ever the same, to serve our home and country's need." 



CHAPTER IX 

EDUCATION BY PLAY 

By the aid of the experts in pedagogy and 

the researches of the biologist, a logical relation 

between the education and the 

A natural approach , « i^-ij u u 

^M. - ^ amusement ot children has been 

to the child mind , . , , t i oo ^ 

established. In the eiiort to make 
a natural approach to the mind of the child, the 
educator has found it necessary to enlist as his 
ally the child's most natural occupation, play. In 
education, as in other avenues of advancement, art 
has had to yield to nature. As Mr. George E. 
Johnson says, " Just as the physician in his search 
for a cure for consumption has circumscribed the 
earth and finally has come back to the thing in 
all the world the simplest and nearest, the first 
demand of the child upon entrance into the world 
— fresh air — so we, in our search for the best 
means of educating our children, are coming back 
to that which was the first expression of his awak- 
ening soul — his play." 

The present position of the play feature in 
the educational life is, in a way, a return to the 
wisdom and method of the ancients. It was cus- 
133 



134 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

tomary among the Greeks to associate play with 

education. Plato did not consider it beneath his 

dignity to give mothers advice 

Value seen in the , , , <• i n t 

_ . on the nursery plays of children, 

Grecian games j ^ j j 

and also urged upon lawmakers 
the necessity of legislation regarding the games of 
the young. The Greek boy began his physical 
education at the age of seven with racing and 
wrestling and various tests of physical proficiency 
in \hQ jpalestra. At the age of sixteen or eighteen 
years he went to the gymnasium, where his de- 
velopment proceeded in similar manner. We have 
already spoken of the physical effect upon the 
Greeks of their devotion to the amusement Ufe, 
and it only remains to say that it has been noted 
that there was also an educational and aesthetic 
value to the Grecian games which made them 
intellectually valuable. Prof. Hoppin of Yale 
says that the public games of the Greeks were a 
cause of their proficiency in sculpture, and that 
with the abandonment of these games there came 
a noticeable decline in that art. 

A similar belief in the connection between 
physical activity and mental development may 

have been the possession of iso- 
. lated individuals throughout the 

ages, but it was not until the time 
of Froebel, the German authority on elementary 
teaching (1782-1852), that anything like a definite 
system of education through play was presented 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 135 

to the world. To this German educator we owe 
in large measure the present modern application 
of play and manual training to the purposes of 
education as found in our graded schools to- 
day. 

The kindergarten idea, — a most significant 
advance in educational methods, — was imported 
from the " Fatherland " a little more than fifty 
years ago. Germans of intellectual culture and 
financial ability established in several of our large 
cities about that time various private schools which 
had as part of their course of training the new 
kindergarten work. From the influence of these 
schools the kindergarten idea found its way to 
first acceptance. 

The first real kindergarten established in the 

United States was in the home of Mrs. Carl 

Schurz in the year 1855, at Watertown, Wis., 

where she taught her own and 

... , the neighbors' children by the 

kindergarten ° *' 

Froebelian methods. The move- 
ment did not gain much headway, and as late as 
1870 there were less than a dozen kindergartens 
in this country. All but one of these were carried 
on by Germans in their own language, the one 
exception being the school of Miss Elizabeth Pea- 
body in Boston, which began its work in 1860. 
The kindergarten exhibit at the Centennial Ex- 
position in Philadelphia in 1876, as well as the 
endorsement of the National Educational Associa- 



136 CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

tion, gave an impetus to the movement, so that in 
1880 there were at least 400 kindergartens scat- 
tered over 30 states. A number of schools for the 
training of kindergarten teachers had been estab- 
lished, and there was an increasing demand for 
the trained workers from these schools. Periodical 
literature and books of instruction concerning the 
new teaching were also to be obtained in con- 
siderable abundance. 

The general adoption of the kindergarten, how- 
ever, was delayed by various hindrances, and some 
years were necessary to overcome the difficulties 
in the way before it could become an established 
feature of our school-system. These objections 
and hindrances, as outlined by an authoritative 
history of the movement, were intellectual, theo- 
logical, and legal. The idea of normal develop- 
ment as a basis of education, rather than the 
impartation of knowledge, had to obtain more 
general acceptance among educators ; the Church, 
always a potent force in intellectual progress, 
must have its spiritual concept widened and a 
socializing element introduced into its faith; 
while the public school must obtain legal consent 
for the introduction of the new system. For it 
must be said that the school-laws of many states 
were such that public money could not be spent 
for the education of children of kindergarten age, 
the legal period of entrance into school being 
placed at various ages from five to eight years. 



EDUCATION BY PLAT 137 

The value of the new system was finally recog- 
nized. The hindrances gradually disappeared un- 
til where once its introduction 

What it has done . , , , • j: 

, ^ ^.,^ into a school was an occasion of 

for the child 

comment, now it is an occasion 
for criticism when a school does not employ kin- 
dergarten methods in the teaching of beginners. 
The effect of the introduction of the kindergarten 
idea into our educational system was twofold : 
all departments of school-work became more sys- 
tematized, and play life in its relation to education 
received its first general recognition. Indeed, an 
intimate relation may be traced between this play 
instruction in the lower grades, and the activities 
of the playground and the manual and physical 
instruction among the older pupils. While the 
kindergarten of to-day has met with the changes 
incident to the growing thought of the age, the 
same socializing tendency is manifest in the sys- 
tem that was present in Froebel's time. Mr. J. 
L. Hughes says : " Froebel's kindergarten was a 
little world where responsibility was shared by 
all, individual rights respected by all, brotherly 
sympathy developed by all, and voluntary co- 
operation practiced by all." And this element of 
social life has in large measure pervaded our edu- 
cational system, — due largely, as many believe, to 
the influence of the kindergarten. 

The intellectual stimulus, as well as the moral 
and social benefits, of the kindergarten upon the 



138 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOEEATION 

life of the child, does not need to be argued with 
those who have had actual experience with the 
system. The sympathetic contact between child 
and teacher affords opportunity for impressing 
the best ideals upon child character. This is il- 
lustrated in the happy effect of a certain teacher's 
association with a boy who was naturally dis- 
posed to be rough in manner. His mother, notic- 
ing the change to more quiet behavior, asked, 
" Does your teacher teach refinement, politeness ? 
What does she do ? " The little fellow replied, 
" Why, she just walks around, and we feel just so 
polite ! " This mystic charm of the effect of char- 
acter through the work of the kindergartner has 
so commended the system in the eyes of those who 
seek for the highest things for childhood that the 
play plans of this " child's garden " have not only 
been used by the secular school, but are employed 
by the churches both in the home and in foreign 
lands for the teaching of the truths of Christianity 
and morals. 

A new development of the play element in edu- 
cation has recently been introduced to the world 
by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian 

The Montessori ... ^ i j. mi i 

. physician and educator, i hough 

in some particulars related to the 
Froebelian idea and dealing with the same ages 
of children (from three to seven years), it is more 
individual in its application, and emphasizes the 
free self -activity of the child to a much greater 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 139 

degree. Madame Montessori was led to the de- 
velopment of her system as much through bio- 
logical channels as by the path of pedagogy. Her 
experiments while connected with an institution 
for the training of feeble-minded children, — where 
the inmates were actually taught by her methods 
to read and write so that they could pass with 
normal children the same examinations at the 
same ages, — led her to apply her system to the 
teaching of normal children. The establishment 
of her " Houses of Childhood " in Kome, and her 
success in the intellectual marvels wrought there 
have caused a great interest to be awakened in 
this country in the work of this talented woman. 
It is about seven years since the first of these 
schools was opened, and it is said that the new 
educational movement is transforming the schools 
of Italy and making much progress in other lands. 
Yisitors from a great many nations have met Dr. 
Montessori and made examination of her methods 
at close hand. The statement of Dr. Theodate 
Smith, of Clark University, of the workings of 
the new system as witnessed by her in the 
Montessori schools of Rome, affords us a glance 
at the methods employed : 

" If one visits one of Dr. Montessori's schools, 
the children all seem to be occupied in interesting 
play. Some are lying on the floor playing with 
blocks or strips of wood painted in different 
colors. Some are playing blindfold games, finding 



140 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

out by the aid of their fingers alone the shapes 
and sizes of objects and different textures of silk, 
satin, wool, or linen. One child was absorbed in 
writing on the blackboard and did not even notice 
my entrance into the room. She was writing in 
large vertical script and forming the letters beau- 
tifully, and in answer to my question as to how 
long she had been writing, I learned that she had 
begun the day before. Occasionally some child 
received either approval or a suggestion that per- 
haps he would like to do something else. But 
the interest and attention of the children are never 
interfered with. If a child wishes to spend the 
entire school-period of two hours in doing one 
thing, he is allowed to do so, on the principle that 
the spontaneous attention is a fundamental edu- 
cative principle that must not be interfered with. 
In spite of the fact that this particular school in 
the convent on the Yia Guisti draws its children 
from an exceedingly poor section in Rome, their 
appearance was neat, and although no discipline 
was apparent, the schoolroom was in the truest 
sense controlled and orderly." 

A leading principle of the new system is the 
education of the senses. Where other systems of 
education depend almost wholly on the sense of 
seeing and hearing, it makes large use of the 
sense of touch. Blindfold games are especially 
popular. By the aid of cut-out letters, the child 
learns by sight and touch the forms of the letters, 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 141 

and without mental strain or overpressure is led 
by the play method to the construction of words 
and the formation of them with pen and pencil. 
Instances are given of children of three and a half 
years of age educated by this method who can 
both read and write in English and Italian. In 
the case of children of four years the time re- 
quired to learn to write is about six weeks, while 
at five years of age a month only is sufficient. So 
naturally does the knowledge come that the child 
begins writing with the idea that it is exercising 
a natural talent, or as one expressed it, that he is 
" big enough to write now." 

In similar vein to the stories of Montessori's 

success in elementary education is the record of 

the case of a Massachusetts prod- 

,. - _..^. igy, "William James Sidis, which 

ham James Sidis ^-^ ' ' 

occupied a prominent place in 
magazine and periodical literature a few years 
ago. Dr. Boris Sidis, then a Harvard lecturer, 
and the father of the boy, believing that our edu- 
cational system was at fault in delaying any at- 
tempt at formal education until the child became 
of " school-age," resolved to begin his boy's educa- 
tion in infancy. 

With the aid of alphabetical blocks, Dr. Sidis 
taught the boy the letters and by shifting the 
blocks about spelled the names of different ob- 
jects, pointing to the objects and naming them 
aloud. By this method the child learned to spell 



142 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

and read before the age of three. When, later in 
the grammar-school work, the boy seemed to have 
a distaste for mathematics, the father invented 
games played with dominoes and marbles, which 
required more or less knowledge of addition, 
subtraction, multiplication, and division. Every 
evening the father and son played these games 
with the result that the boy came to great pro- 
ficiency in mathematics. Similar methods were 
employed in teaching other subjects, so that in 
half a year he had passed through seven grades of 
school-work, and then with three months in the 
Brookline High School and some home-study, he 
was ready for Harvard at the age of nine. By a 
regulation of the university he was compelled to 
wait until eleven years of age before entering, 
but the newspapers noted his graduation in June, 
1914, — by a special vote of the faculty of Harvard 
University, — at the early age of sixteen. 

Dr. Sidis says that in the teaching of his son he 

employed, besides the play plan of approach, the 

principle of suggestion, and the 

Value of these application of the psychological 

methods with i p .. 7 „ 

children ^^ ^ reserve mental energy 

advocated by Prof. William James. 
He believes that it was not the exceptional char- 
acter of his pupil that secured the results here 
mentioned, but rather the application of his edu- 
cational theories. Regardless of the fact that 
Dr. Sidis instances other examples of the develop- 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 143 

ment of the mental life in a short space of time 
by these processes, educators are disposed, to be- 
lieve that the unusual influences of heredity and 
environment which the son possessed are in large 
measure the underlying cause of his rapid progress. 
The method of Madame Montessori as well, while 
looked upon with interest by intellectual leaders, 
is still regarded with somewhat of suspicion, espe- 
cially by Americans. It is said concerning her 
recently published work, The Method of Scientific 
Pedagogy^ that it appears " rather as an ingenious 
deduction of modern theories to practical uses than 
a new creation." While it may be necessary to 
wait for some time before the methods of Montes- 
sori or the theories of Sidis shall have complete 
recognition, their work is valuable as an encour- 
agement to the notion of education by play, and 
in that sense should have immediate acceptance. 

Proceeding from the idea of play in elementary 

education, we discover that similar methods have 

been finding acceptance in the 

^ oving-pictures j^joriier ffrades of school-Ufe, The 

in the higher ^ ^ ^ 

school-grades ^^^^"^ ^f that most popular form of 
American amusement, — the mov- 
ing-picture show, — has already been noted as re- 
lated to the boys and girls of our public schools. 
The advantage of the moving-picture as a means 
of imparting knowledge is so evident that teach- 
ers are now advocating its use as a most essential 
auxiliary to effective class-work. It is believed 



144 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOEBATION 

also that the introduction of the picture film will 
assist in the matter of regular attendance and dis- 
cipline. The University of Wisconsin has recently 
perfected a plan whereby moving-pictures may 
be exhibited in every school in the state. Prof. 
Louis E. Keber, the Dean of the Extension De- 
partment, says: "As a means of stimulation, 
especially for the sluggish pupil, and to provide 
wholesome and attractive entertainment, there 
is nothing better than the educational moving- 
picture," The university will have a large mov- 
ing-picture " library " to circulate among the 
schools. The films will be furnished free, each 
school to have its own moving-picture machine. 
A similar plan is in process of adoption at the 
Nebraska State University. 

The value of the moving-picture as a means of 

education is quite generally conceded. Prof. F. K. 

Starr, of the Chicago University, 

eir gener ^^ ^^ .^ ^^ ^ tremendous vital 

endorsement •' 

force of culture as well as of 
amusement." Through the efforts of the late 
Prof. Charles Sprague Smith, of the People's 
Institute, 'New York City, — a pioneer in the 
movement for wholesome moving-pictures, — his- 
torical scenes such as " Washington Crossing the 
Delaware " and the " Life of John Paul Jones " 
were prepared, with the educational effect in mind. 
A large number of films are listed in the educa- 
tional class. In a recent year one-third of the 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 145 

films passing the JS'ational Board of Censorship 
were classed as educational, and the proportion 
is doubtless even larger at the present time. The 
manufacturers are acceding to the demand for the 
educational film and the pupils in the schools are 
ready for its coming. Children of the grammar- 
grades of Providence, K. I., in the investigation of 
their moving-picture tastes referred to in a former 
chapter, gave the following reasons for preferring 
the educational picture : " Because when we study 
our history we have a clear picture of what we are 
talking about." " Because you can learn quicker 
from moving-pictures than from books." " If 
schools had moving-pictures about their lessons, 
the children would pay a great deal more atten- 
tion to their books." 

Edison, the tireless inventor, is assisting in the 

new plan of education by the development in his 

laboratories of a series of instruct- 

fontribution i^® fil^s- O^ ^^® ^^^ory that 

children as well as adults do best 
in studies in which they are the most interested, 
he aims to make the films as attractive as possible. 
He has been led, we are told, by his young son to 
devise this new scheme for secondary education. 
It is planned to present a wide variety of subjects 
covering the various branches taught in the 
schools. As ■ Mr. Ayers, of the Eussell Sage 
Foundation, writes in The Survey : " The mate- 
rials of the new educational device consist of 



146 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

wonderfully clever pictures of natural phenomena 
in motion. They portray with startling vividness 
the workings of pumps, in which we look through 
transparent walls and see the valves opening and 
shutting and the water rising with each piston- 
stroke. . . . Other films show the develop- 
ment of the house-fly through all its different 
stages. The caterpillar encloses itself in the 
chrysalis, and later emerges a beautiful butterfly. 
By means of motion-pictures taken through 
powerful microscopes, the minutest forms of 
plant and animal life are seen, the development of 
cell-growths becomes a vivid reality, and one 
watches in every detail the formation of the most 
beautiful and intricate sorts of crystals." The 
films as completed are shown to a select audience 
of educational experts for their criticism. It is 
said, however, that the censorship which Mr. 
Edison most depends on is that of a group of chil- 
dren to whom these films are exhibited. That 
which does not " get across " to their young minds 
must be changed or eliminated, for the picture is 
solely for the benefit of the child. 

This deference to the child is the germ of 
modern plans of elementary education ; as it has 
been aptly expressed, "The need of the child 
is the law of the school." Probably in no sys- 
tem is this more fully brought out than in organ- 
izations like the Andover Play School at Andover, 
Massachusetts. 



EDUCATION BY PLAY 147 

This is a vacation school continuing for six 

weeks during the summer, and made up of pupils 

from the public-school grades. 

The Andover mi • i j j.v. 

„, „ ^ , ihe course includes the various 

Play School 

manual-training features : the col- 
lecting of minerals, stamps and coins , outdoor 
games and plays, nature study, etc. The selection 
of subjects for all pupils over nine years of age is 
left to their own volition, and for those under that 
age selection is to be made by the parents. It was 
originally the design of this vacation school to 
provide instructive amusement for the boys of the 
community who would be inclined to spend the 
vacation days among the bad surroundings of the 
city streets ; but at the urgent request of parents, the 
school now includes not only those of the class for 
whom it was originally planned, but many from 
the best homes of the city. The interest taken in 
the various lines of work, or play, — for it is some- 
times hard to discover the dividing-line, — was 
intense on the part of the pupils, and the appre- 
ciation of the parents not less enthusiastic. Mr. 
Johnson, who has already been quoted in this 
chapter, says of the Andover Play School : 
" While the conditions in Andover were favorable 
for carrying on a school like that described, they 
were by no means unusual. I have yet to see a 
country village where a similar school could not 
be successfully conducted, with the accompanying 
benefits to the children, so many of whom are, 



148 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

without question, injured by the experiences of the 
long summer vacation." 

The work of the play school is similar to much 
which is being done in our large cities under the 
auspices of the playground and recreation center, 
the beneficial effects of which have been dwelt 
upon. Thus with the employment of play methods 
in our school system, upon our playgrounds, and 
in our vacation periods, we can but note a grow- 
ing association between the intellectual life and 
organized play. "With our beginners making 
their entrance into our educational system by the 
pleasant path of play, and the secondary pupils 
following the system as well ; with our high-school 
and college students receiving marks for profi- 
ciency in athletics, one does not need to be a prophet 
to declare that we are in the beginning of an era 
in which play shall form a part in our school cur- 
riculum which a few years since would have been 
thought impossible. 



CHAPTEE X 

IN THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 

A GENEEATiON ago, among the passengers on 

an old stage-coach going up to Moosehead Lake, 

in Maine, were three boys about 

A weakling who , , pp. r\ 

the affe of lourteen years. One 

became strong *=> *' 

of them, a slight lad, was the 
special butt of his two companions. When his 
patience had quite reached the limit, he endeav- 
ored to settle the account with the other boys in a 
fistic encounter ; but found that either of his com- 
rades was more than a match for him. Then this 
young boy, who had been sent alone by his par- 
ents on this journey for his health, began to do 
some thinking. He had long wished to be fear- 
less and strong, but the desire had hitherto been 
an idle dream. As a result of his encounter with 
those boys, however, he began to train for 
strength. By boxing-lessons, by horseback riding, 
and by a life in the open air, he built up a robust 
body. The habits thus begun continued into man- 
hood, so that in his maturity there has probably 
been none among the prominent men of America 
who has represented so vigorous a physical life as 
has Theodore Eoosevelt, — once a physical weak- 
149 



150 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

ling, but made strong by his practical use of 
athletics. 

As with young Eoosevelt, there is inherent in 

every youth the admiration of physical prowess, 

with the desire to engage in ath- 

miration -^^^^^ sports, — not merely because 

of youth for ^ "^ 

physical strength ^^ ^he pleasure derived, but also 
on account of the anticipated phys- 
ical profit. An authority on play tells us that 
eighty per cent, of the games popular during the 
adolescent period have muscular activity as their 
principal feature. And be it noted that the Amer- 
ican youth has a reverence akin to patriotic de- 
votion for the deeds of physical prowess. Doubt- 
less the physical superiority of Washington has 
had something to do with the honor paid him by 
the boy of to-day ; for, aside from his triumphs 
on the field of war, it is no mean recommendation 
to the rising generation that our hero in his youth 
could throw a stone across the Rappahannock 
River, and carve his name the highest on the 
dizzy slopes of the Natural Bridge. The fact that 
Washington could leap, run, and ride better than 
any of his youthful companions bears out the 
truth of the utterance of Jahn, the German pa- 
triot, " Only strong muscles can make men great 
and nations free." 

Because the athletic seems so naturally a part 
of young life, the schools and colleges have long 
been leaders in the effort to furnish healthful 



IN THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 151 

sports. And yet the place whicli athletics now 

occupy in the school-life was secured against more 

or less opposition. Old students 

Former opposition ^^ Princeton tell of the days 

to athletics , , • 

in school-life when lesson assignments were so 

long that the time for recreation 
must be stolen from study hours. Some of the 
wealthier students kept saddle-horses for their 
pleasure ; while the poorer students enjoyed long 
walks through the beautiful rural surroundings of 
the college. But because these diversions took 
too much time from studies the faculty forbade 
them. At one time " shinny " became a popular 
game, but a faculty rule in 1Y87 declared it to be 
"low and unbecoming gentlemen and students, 
and attended with great danger to the health by 
sudden alternate heats and colds," and it was 
therefore forbidden. The boisterous spirits of the 
students were bound by a regulation, in 1794, for- 
bidding " halloing, loud talking, whistling, jump- 
ing, or any other boisterous noise " in the entries 
or rooms of the college. 

Not all the features of sporting life in college 
have met with unqualified endorsement by the edu- 
cators of the present time. The 

Football in , . ,, j. j- i i 

„ vr . J desire upon the part of school- 
college life to-day . ^ ^ 

authorities to permit only that 
which shall be the most helpful has caused them 
at various times to hesitate concerning the con- 
tinuance of one of the most prominent college 



152 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EBCEEATION 

sports — football. The problem of its regulation 
has been seriously considered, and efforts have 
been made to render the game less dangerous. 
The objections to football, — already mentioned in 
some detail, — have been met by various statements 
on the part of those who are friendly to the game. 
The number of deaths, it is declared, have not all 
been directly traceable to the game itself, but 
rather to the neglect of immediate physical atten- 
tion, or to foolhardy risks on the part of the 
players. It is said that the greater number of 
fatalities occur among the younger and less ex- 
perienced players, and so the game is not being 
recommended by educators and physical-trainers 
for younger boys. 

Some statements from the proceedings of the 
Intercollegiate Athletic Association are of in- 
terest. "Ten years ago," says the Secretary, 
Prof. Frank "W. Nicolson, in the proceedings for 
1912, "the game of football as played in Amer- 
ican colleges was in a bad way. . . . Not 
only was the game deadly in its dreariness, but, 
what was of more importance, it was growing 
more deadly to the participants. . . . The dis- 
content of college faculties with such conditions 
found expression in a JSTational Football Con- 
ference, summoned by Chancellor MacCracken, 
of the 'New York University, in December, 1905. 
The presidents and other representatives of seventy 
American colleges met at the Murray Hill Hotel, 



IF THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 153 

in New York City, determined to abolish inter- 
collegiate football, if they could not reform it. 
The conservative element won, and the game was 
saved, but only by drastic measures." The com- 
mittee on rules, in conjunction with other experts, 
succeeded in bringing about a beneficial change, 
and " after some experiments, evolved the present- 
day game, — vastly more interesting than that of 
former years, and with the injuries reduced to a 
minimum." 

It is not claimed, however, that the game has 
fully lost its element of danger. In the Athletic 
Association proceedings for 1913 the chairman of 
the committee on football fatalities says : " Foot- 
ball is a rough game, however it is played, and 
accidents, avoidable and unavoidable, will occur. 
It should never be indulged in unless every pre- 
caution is taken in advance, not only in the way 
of training and instruction in the matter of skill 
and condition, but also in regard to the spirit of 
sportsmanship that should prevail. And further, 
in no case should a game be played, or practice 
held, without adequate provision for proper and 
immediate hygienic and medical care." The se- 
rious attempts on the part of the friends of this 
vigorous game to reform its abuses are to be com- 
mended. It is beUeved by many that the athletic 
and disciplinary value of football is such that it 
ought not to be abolished entirely. 

Our educational institutions are giving large 



154 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

place to athletic sports. As an outlet for that 
warlike spirit which is a part of a boy's inher- 
ited resources, as well as a train- 
e ics a . j^^ ^-^^ stern battles of life, 

safety valve i i i • 

the athletic contests deserve en- 
couragement. "When Chancellor Day went to 
Syracuse University, he found that there was no 
provision for football or field sports. One of his 
first acts was the securing of an athletic-field and 
a grandstand. On being asked by the president 
of the board of trustees why he wanted these, Dr. 
Day said, " So that the students may work off 
some of their surplus energy on themselves and 
not on me." This facetious answer of the vigor- 
ous chancellor does not of course fully express his 
appreciation of athletic sports ; — that is better evi- 
denced by the great gymnasium and the fine 
stadium which have been provided at Syracuse, 
and by the athletic spirit which now prevails 
there. 

The plea for clean sports, and the spirit of fair 
play, which is making an impression in the sphere 

of athletic life to-day, are largely 
u va ing ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ideals set forth by our 

fair play ♦^ 

educational institutions. Over the 
entrance to the athletic-field of Bowdoin College, 
graven in the imperishable granite, is the motto, 
JFair play, and may the hest man win. All the 
contending teams must pass through this door on 
their way to the field. This motto voices the 



m THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 155 

high ideals which the schools are now demand- 
ing of the athletic world. 

It has been discovered by educators that it is 
not impossible to cultivate appreciation of this 
spirit of fairness and to teach lessons in practical 
ethics even to those raised in environments which 
are degenerating. A few years ago several mem- 
bers of the Board of Education of ISTew York City 
dined together after one of its meetings. Two of 
the members, who had previously investigated, 
informed the others that on the East Side in a 
given district they had found a city-block of 200 
feet in length where there were 200 children, — 
a child to each running foot, — without play-facili- 
ties or opportunities for athletic development. 
This statement and the discussion following led 
to the formation of the Public School Athletic 
League of the City of 'New York, which took 
charge of the problem of the athletic training of 
600,000 children. The first principle of the or- 
ganization was fair play, and the effort to teach 
clean sport began. As an illustration of the 
carrying out of the principle, even at the loss of 
victory, General Wingate, the president of the 
League, gives the following example : 

" At the elementary championship games, which 
were held in Brooklyn on December 12, 1908, 
Public School 6, Manhattan, carried off the point 
trophy with a total of 14 points, — the next schools 
making 13 and 11 respectively, — and was declared 



156 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

to be the champion. "Within a few days there- 
after a representative from Public School 6 called 
upon Dr. Crampton and stated that they had dis- 
covered that one of their competitors in a relay 
race in vp^hich the school had won one of the 
points which made them victors, was a substitute 
who was not within the qualifications ; that, in 
consequence, they did not win the point under 
the rules, and therefore desired to relinquish their 
claim to the championship." ' 

The faith of school-authorities in the good in- 
fluence of athletics is evidenced by the amount of 
expense and effort expended to 

School athletics j. • i i j^ t m 

lurmsh such sports, in iacoma, 

in various cities ^ , . ' 

Wash., through the contributions 
of the business men and the assistance of school 
authorities, a magnificent stadium has been built 
for the high-school boys, at a cost of approximately 
$80,000. In Newark, N. J., $75,000 has been spent 
in purchasing and equipping a fine athletic-field for 
the public schools. In Troy, N. Y., in co-opera- 
tion with the Young Men's Christian Association, 
the Public Schools Athletic League has been pro- 
viding athletics, a prominent feature of which is 
the annual athletic-meet in May. The results of 
the regents' examinations in Troy showed that a 
high standard of school grades was maintained by 

^ Col. Charles W. Larned, in " Athletics from a Historical and 
Educational Standpoint," Proceedings, Third Annual Conven- 
tion Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Dec, 1908. 



IN THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 157 

those who took part in the school athletics. The 
number participating in the various cities in these 
school athletics and field meets increases from year 
to year. The following figures from JSTewark will 
probably be a suflScient illustration of their in- 
creasing popularity : The first outdoor-meet was 
held in June, 1904; only boys competed, the 
girls being admitted the following year. In 1907 
the girls had their first separate meet, an increased 
number of them taking part. During the year 
1913-14, among the boys, there was an increase 
of those participating from the 400 of the first 
year to 5,000 ; while the number of girl con- 
testants increased from the 400 of the first year 
to 2,991. 

Probably the most just criticism brought against 

American athletics is that only a few out of the 

whole number have the advantage 

A just criticism of „.,... , , , , 

. . .01 their framing and development. 

American sports o ^ 

The ancient game of football gave 
opportunity for the division of the school into 
contending sides, while each one energetically 
kicked for his side. Now, as in all team games, 
the number is reduced to a small fraction of the 
entire school. An English gentleman, talking 
with the president of a great American university, 
asked how many boat-crews the school had on the 
lake. The college president replied, "Three — 
possibly four." Said the other, " I am a graduate 
of Cambridge. How many boat-crews do you 



158 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

suppose we have there ? "We have one hundred 
and five ! " 

The wide endorsement of athletics by our 
schools to-day, and the increasing provision made 
for such sports, lead us to believe that the system 
prevailing at the great university on the river Cam 
shall ere long be the rule in our own institutions 
of learning.. The introduction of class athletics, 
in which eighty per cent, of the class must com- 
pete, is assisting in bringing about a similar result 
in the public schools. With this result accom- 
plished we shall realize in a more perfect degree 
Chancellor Day's ideal : " The function of college 
athletics is to secure to the whole student body 
the most helpful physical development in the most 
exhilarating manner, for the purposes of a sound 
and healthy scholarship by adapting and using 
all manner of exercises and sports; and for the 
purpose of inculcating practical moral ideals and 
the moral uses of the body in the development of 
manhood." 

Unsatisfactory as the organized athletics of our 

schools have often been, and unfortunate as has 

been the fact that comparatively 

Physical improve- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^j^ ^^ participate, 
ment through . i , , i i , i i 

college sports '^^ cannot be doubted that they have 
been of physical help to many. 
Walter Camp, a recognized authority on football, 
gives, in an American magazine, a letter from a 
missionary in India, who was regularly on the 



IN THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 159 

'varsity team throughout his college course and 
who played part of the time during his theological 
studies. After six years on his tropical field, rid- 
ing his bicycle day and night and enduring the 
strenuous life of a missionary, he writes : " I have 
no doubt that much of my endurance is attribut- 
able to my football experience. In our mission 
there are three old football players, and I fancy 
none will question our claim to the greatest en- 
durance and general good health." Numerous 
other personal experiences of those who have re- 
ceived large physical benefit from college sports 
might be cited. The game of basket-ball, — next 
in popularity to football in our colleges, — and the 
national game of baseball, have both contributed 
their share to the physical-training of our young 
men. 

It is interesting to note that college students, 
both male and female, have made a substantial 
increase in hodily measurements during the past 
generation. Figures furnished this writer by 
Prof. Paul C. Phillips, of the Department of 
Physical Education of Amherst College, which 
are the result of an investigation conducted by 
him, show that the young women in our American 
colleges are both taller and heavier than the young 
women of twenty years ago. The excess in weight 
in the cases tabulated averages 2.2 pounds, and 
the height averages one-third of an inch greater, 
while the chest measurement is increased by an 



160 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

average of more than half an inch. For fifty 
years records have been kept concerning the 
weight and height of students at Amherst Col- 
lege. These records show that the present aver- 
age height of students of 17 years is 68.2 inches, 
and those of 20 years, 68.3 inches, as against the 
17-year-old student who, prior to 1884, measured 
only 66.8 inches, and the 20-year-old student who, 
at the earliest date the records were kept, meas- 
ured only 67.5 inches. The weight has also sub- 
stantially increased. The table of figures con- 
cerning strength-tests which has been kept at 
Amherst for the past twenty-five years also shows 
a decided increase. This physical improvement 
of our young men is believed in large measure to 
be the result of the more systematic use of ath- 
letics in recent years. 

As an instance of that physical perseverance 

which wins, two pictures come up before me as I 

write. They are connected with 

A boat-race on i. i. -l. i. r\ \. • j a 

, , a contest between Cambridge and 

Oxford on the Thames River. The 
first scene shows the start ; the rowers are in their 
places, — everyone alert and strong, — while cheer- 
ing thousands encourage their respective teams. 
The second picture is the finish of the race. The 
winning crew, — that of Cambridge, — comes in 
with only two of the rowers able to pull their 
oars, while the others evidence by their hanging 
heads and bowed bodies their completely fagged 



IN THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 161 

condition. The honor goes to Cambridge; and 
it all depended on the two men who were able to 
hold their own. Some day in the race of life 
their exploit will be duplicated, and the training 
of the days of school life will be responsible for 
their again proving themselves superior to their 
fellows. 

The spirit which enabled those two to win out 

for their team, as well as the spirit which carried 

the others to the point of complete 

^ ^" ° exhaustion, is a highly beneficial 

team-play ' o ^ 

factor to society. A distinctive 
element of the team-game is the sacrifice of the 
individual's personal interest for the benefit of the 
clan. One day, during the progress of a football 
game, a young quarter-back said to his coach, 
" Take me out ; I've forgotten the signals." The 
personal privilege of being in the game was noth- 
ing to him compared with the success of his team. 
Similar self-sacrifice is the constant need of 
social life. The team athletic contest has been 
the means of making the individual player realize 
that he is not an isolated factor in life's problem, 
but that he stands related to the other factors. 
In Public School 30, 'New York City, the cham- 
pion broad-jumper was ineligible to compete on 
account of low grades in his studies. The boy- 
editor of the school-paper remarked, " It's a pity 
he can't jump as well with his lessons." Dr. 
Crampton, Secretary of the Athletic League, 



162 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

wrote to the principal, expressing the wish that 
so good an athlete might be induced to do better 
work in school. The reply soon came that the 
classmates of the young fellow were looking after 
the matter, and that the boy hod already reached 
a higher standing in his studies. The student was 
thus induced to do for his class what he had not 
formerly done for himself. Actual demonstra- 
tions prove that carefully directed athletics will 
teach the boy more concerning his behavior 
toward society than he will learn from any 
treatise on ethics. 

The moral benefit which is the outcome of clean 
sport is of course the highest dividend which ath- 
letics pay to society. The time 

Athletic successes ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^_ 
demand clean <• • j i j -j. 

jj^ijjjg letics were friends has passed, if 

indeed that time ever was. Ath- 
letes in large numbers testify to the fact that 
liquor and tobacco are the enemies of muscular 
efficiency. Boys and young men in training for 
the games must deny themselves these destructive 
agencies, and by the most careful living de- 
velop themselves to the highest possible physical 
standard. A picture of the New York Giants, 
which appeared in a leading magazine not long 
ago, is accompanied by the proud statement from 
McGraw that this is " A club of clean-livers." To 
this fact he attributes in large measure their 
success. 



IN" THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 163 

It is said that the athletic triumphs of Yale and 
Pennsylvania Universities have been due in large 
measure to the strict rulings of " Mike " Murphy, as 
he was familiarly called. Murphy is on record with 
the statement that he forbade the use of liquor by 
all players whom he coached. He said : " "We 
have just as good athletes to-day as we ever did, 
and more than three-fourths of them never drank 
any kind of intoxicant in their life. That is the 
best thing about athletics ; it teaches a man to 
live a clean life and to rely on himself entirely." 

A similar pronouncement of the advisability of 
abstinence from tobacco is given by Dr. Seaver, 
medical examiner of the Yale University gym- 
nasium : " Whenever it is desired to secure the 
highest possible working ability by the organism, 
as in athletic contests, where the maximum of 
effort is demanded, all motor depressant influences 
are removed as far as possible, tobacco being one 
of the first substances forbidden." 

The man of athletic mold, because of the nat- 
ural affinity between youth and the physically 

stronff, has within his power the 
The athlete's . 

. „ opportunity to exercise a high 

influence rr j o 

moral influence among the young. 
Dr. Luther H. Gulick gives an instance of the 
transfer of character from the play-trainer to those 
under his leadership, which is a case in point.* 

* Dr. Lnther H. Gulick, Proceedings, National Playground 
Association, vol. Ill, p. 292. 



164 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

A young student from Yale, — a catcher on the 
baseball team,— spent the summer in a certain 
country community. He was asked by the boys 
if he played ball. On his answering in the affirm- 
ative, they proceeded to " try him out " in their 
local team, with surprising and gratifying results. 
Their admiration for his athletic prowess, as well 
as for his personal character, made him a natural 
leader among them. He went to them each 
season for several years. At his suggestion the 
organization of their team was made permanent 
for the doing of other things besides playing ball. 
His influence reshaped the lives of the young men 
who came in touch with his leadership, and real 
character gain to the youth of the community was 
the result. 

As another illustration, we cite the instance of 
a young student who was brought to a life of 
great usefulness in Christian service by his con- 
tact with a leader in athletics, as published re- 
cently in an autobiographical sketch by Dr. "Wil- 
fred T. Grenfell.' In the year 1883, when young 
Grenfell was studying medicine in London, he 
saw a crowd of people going into a tent in the 
slums of Stepney. Attracted by the singing, he 
followed the crowd into the tent. Here he lis- 
tened to a stirring gospel address by Mr. J. E. K. 
Studd, a celebrated cricket player. The young 

^Dr. W. T. Grenfell, "Among the Deep Sea Fishermen," 
Outlook, July, 1903, p. 695 fE. 



IE THE FIELD OF ATHLETICS 165 

medical student was then playing on several ath- 
letic-teams and was immediately interested in the 
message of one whose association with sport did 
not interfere with his devotion to religion. As a 
result of that meeting with the man whose ath- 
letic success he so much admired, Grenfell was 
led to commit himself to an uncompromising 
Christian life. After his graduation, having a 
desire for adventure, as well as for religious ac- 
tivity, Grenfell became the missionary to the 
deep sea fishermen of Labrador, where he has 
ever since stood, not merely as an exponent of 
clean sport and clean life, but as a social regener- 
ator known and admired throughout the Christian 
world. 



CHAPTEE XI 

THE SPOETS OF BOYS 

Edwaed Eveeett is authority for the state- 
ment that in John Quinoy Adams's life there was 
no such stage as boyhood. In the 

The boy is father t i , -. ^ i ^ j s> 

. nght of our present knowledge of 

childhood as a preparation for 
after-life, it is diflB.cult to understand how such a 
man could be fully ready to fill his place in society. 
Certainly it is unfortunate for one not to have 
known the spirit of boyhood. The question, many 
times asked by the impatient and thoughtless, 
" What are boys good for ? " finds its apt reply in 
the answer of the youngster who said, " To make 
men out of." Since amusements are so vital a 
part of a boy's life, it is natural that a treatment 
of the amusement question in its relation to man- 
hood should not neglect the consideration of a 
boy's sports. 

Mr. George E. Johnson, to whom we have before 

referred, divides the periods of child life as follows : 

(1) The period of infancy — up to 

tageso pay ^j^ree vears. (2) The years from 

development *' ^ ^ *' 

four to six. (3) Seven to nine. 
(4) Ten to twelve. (5) Thirteen to fifteen. His 
classification of plays and games for the different 
166 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 167 

periods, as well as the statements of authorities on 
child study, indicate but little difference in the 
play tastes of children in the earlier periods. 
During the years of infancy the natural instinct is 
to play alone, or with the parent. Later, boys, as 
well as girls, play with dolls, and housekeeping 
and domestic occupations are mutually enjoyed in 
their plays together. The enjoyment of play- 
mates begins with school-days, and the games and 
plays in which others share are more popular than 
any solitary enjoyment. The self-center in play, 
however, continues strong until about the fourth 
period, when, beginning to wane, it gives way to 
games that represent a larger social interest, and 
later is subordinated to the instinct for the club 
and the gang. In period four a distinctive char- 
acter begins to appear in boys' play, and the sexes no 
longer have the same play tastes which character- 
ized early childhood. During these various stages 
of child growth there are accompanying changes 
in the physical and mental development which 
have their part in the unfolding life. 

It is in the natural gang-forming period of a 
boy's life that special work in boy training must 
begin. This epoch starts about the age of ten or 
twelve, and beginning with this age and continu- 
ing until the years of maturity, there are needed a 
strong hand and helpful counsel for the direction 
of a boy's amusement life. 

The boy in this period of the beginning of 



168 CHAEACTEE THROUGH EECEEATION 

larger life is at the height of his fun-loving exist- 
ence. His hero-worshiping instinct is just be- 
ginning to assert itself. His ad- 
When play over- jjiiratiou of physical vigor is 

sxG^ht becomes j- </ o 

ur ent prominent. It is the habit-form- 

ing age, the collecting age, the 
period in which memory is intensely active and 
the mind alert to take up whatever comes its 
way. It is the era of spontaneous organization, 
in which the boy starts in the larger social life 
which is to become an increasing development 
throughout the after years. 

Dr. Wm. Byron Forbush reasons that the or- 
ganizations provided for boys by their elders shall 
take note of the natural instincts 
Organization ^f ^-^^^^ ^ ^^lo have formed 

should follow , . ■ , ■ ,1 

boy instincts Voluntary organizations them- 

selves, and shall follow the lines 
of nature rather than a program arranged after 
adult instincts. Presenting the results of a ques- 
tionnaire sent out by Dr. Henry D, Sheldon, Dr. 
Forbush shows that of 1,034 answers from boys of 
10 to 16 years, 851 were members of clubs or so- 
cieties voluntarily organized by boys. Six hun- 
dred and twenty-three of these societies were 
described, and from these descriptions the follow- 
ing results were ascertained : 

Those societies having secrets were 23, or only 
3.5 per cent.; those merely social — for "a good 
time," 28, or 4.25 per cent. ; industrial organiza- 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 169 

tions, 56, or 8.5 per cent. ; philanthropic, 10, or 1.5 
per cent. ; literary, artistic, or musical, 28, or 4,25 
per cent. ; predatory (hunting, migratory, building, 
fighting, preying), 105, or 17 per cent. ; while the 
athletic and game clubs numbered 379, or 61 per 
cent. The ages at which these organizations were 
formed is significant. Those formed by boys be- 
low ten years numbered 72 ; those from the ages of 
10 to 13 numbered 625 ; while those formed over 
the age of 13, from' the years 14 to 17, were 215. 

These figures, while of course not infallible as 
a guide, must in some degree be considered as rep- 
resentative of boyish instincts. An examination of 
them shows how small a part the organizations 
which were merely literary, artistic or musical, or 
even secretive, social, industrial, or philanthropic, 
have in the interest of boys. The predatory, 
athletic, and game societies have the most promi- 
nent position, representing a total of 78 per cent, 
of the whole. The instincts of the boy incline to 
the outdoor life and to occupations of physical 
activity. His amusements and organizations must 
therefore be adapted to this end, with the literary, 
the artistic, and the moral ideals occupying the 
less prominent place. But a skilful leader of boys 
will find opportunity, through the avenues of the 
athletic and the physical life, to enforce the higher 
thoughts, both intellectual and ethical. 

The boy is liable to be repulsed at once by the 
prominence of the moralistic element in that in 



170 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

which he is asked to engage, and any disposition 
upon the part of a leader to " preach," without hav- 
ing prepared some previous basis 
ay s ou ^j contact with his boys, will prob- 

develop ideals . , 

ably be ineffective as a charac- 
ter-help. The development of proper ideals in a 
boy's life, which are absolutely essential to the 
building of true character, must come about in a 
natural way, in response to the easy method of 
approach through the sporting or play life to which 
he is already inclined. 

The boy, no matter what his age, lives largely 
in the realm of the ideal. The object of the boy's 
play must ultimately be the acquisition of ideals, 
and habits in harmony with them. Of course it 
will not be understood that the boy engages in 
his play with any such thought in mind. That 
would destroy the naive character of his play. 
He should pass through the various stages of his 
life with none of the self-consciousness of the boy 
who, on being asked concerning certain unusual 
behavior of his, replied, " Oh, I'm passing through 
adolescence." As a corrective to such abnormal 
introspection, and an aid to unconscious growth 
in the higher ideals, clean sports and proper 
amusements are a means of most natural develop- 
ment. I would not wish to take the extreme 
ground, however, of the statement reported as 
emanating recently from a professor in the Chicago 
University that " a boy can get more ethical help 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 171 

from a game of baseball than he can from a 
Sunday-school lesson." I should say it depends 
largely upon the character of the Sunday-school 
lesson and the kind of baseball game, — as well as 
upon the stuff there is in the boy to start with. 
The highest object of a boy's religion, as well as 
of his recreation, is to furnish him with the best 
moral and social ideals. 

A prevalent tendency among boys, in the team- 
games especially, is to exalt the idea of victory 

above all other interests. This 
A wrong idea sentiment is largely responsible 

for the methods which are too 
widely practised in athletics. ISTo matter how 
well the team plays, if it does not win, all seems 
lost. A young high-school boy, who was in this 
writer's family for some time, was so possessed 
with this idea that, when his team did not win, 
he was either so indignant or so despondent that 
he lost all enjoyment of the sport itself. His 
attitude was similar when beaten in a game of 
checkers by one of his companions. Dr. Henry 
van Dyke says of the Princeton athletes that when 
defeat is theirs they are good losers. My young 
friend was not a "good loser." The boy who 
uses every honorable effort to win, and when de- 
feated can smile in the face of failure, has learned 
an important lesson in self-mastery. To win by 
a trick or a flaw is beneath the dignity of one 
who has learned the value and joy of clean sport. 



172 OHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATIOK 

In a comparison of the sporting ideals of England 
and America, Dr. Endicott Peabody tells of a 
young Ehodes scholar who was asked to play in 
the football team. Instead of being put through 
a long system of training, as would be customary 
in our American colleges, the young fellow was 
somewhat surprised to be put into a match game 
the next day. His team was beaten 40 to 0. The 
American student was much crestfallen, and was 
surprised when an English companion, who had 
played with him, remarked, " We had a jolly good 
game, didn't we ? " The Englishman, though de- 
feated, could enjoy the game for recreation's sake ; 
and the American, on whom a new light had 
dawned, was obliged to say, " Why, yes, it was a 
good game, wasn't it ? " 

We need to be careful also lest we should in- 
culcate in the mind of the boy the idea that his 
recreational life represents noth- 
ing particularly worth while. The 

proper spirit ° ^ -^ 

day has passed when any thought- 
ful person considers play as merely a filler of the 
open gaps of life, or as a waste of energy. But a 
lack of appreciation of a boy's amusements may 
lead him to think that it matters little how they 
are conducted. The careless attitude of parent or 
teacher or minister toward a boy's recent triumph 
on the baseball-field will be likely to dampen his 
enthusiasm in any plans we may have for his 
advancement along the lines of our grown-up 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 173 

program for his activities. Eather let us train 
the young boy to believe that the zest and vigor 
with which he shall enter into his play life are 
vitally important. For, as some one has aptly 
said, " The sort of play that masters only the easy 
things is poor play and naturally prepares for 
poor work. The sort of play that becomes expert 
is the best sort of preparation for work." 

The understanding of a boy's instincts and the 

developing of a boy's ideals by proper oversight 

will not prevent our realizing that 

A "good ume primarily the object of a boy in 

„„• ^„, „,-„^. his amusement life is to "have a 

primary ODject 

good time." And we do not wish 
to lose sight of this ideal in planning and playing 
with our boys. Little Tim had appeared a num- 
ber of times in the Juvenile Court of Pittsburgh 
for stealing apples, and after warning was let go. 
Finally the probation oflB.cer's patience was ex- 
hausted, and he questioned the boy in a despairing 
tone, " Kow, Tim, tell me honestly : why do you 
steal apples ? Do you get so hungry for them 
that you just can't help it ? " Somewhat surprised 
at this unexpected turn, the boy hung his head a 
moment and said, "Why, I don't care so much 
about eating them, but it is such fun to have old 
Smudge chase me." Here was the honest con- 
fession of the desire to have fun ; and the exhila- 
ration of the chase from the apple-orchard was as 
keenly enjoyed as it would have been around the 



174 CHAEACTEE THEOITGH EECEEATION 

baseball-diamond or on the football-field. With 
the substitution of healthful plays, we can make 
it possible for boys to gain an exhilaration which 
shall be accompanied by a clear conscience and a 
care-free mind. 

The redirection of this misspent activity on the 
part of boys has been the object of many organiza- 
tions among them. A book on 

Various organiza- , , i , • i •. j.i 

, . boys' work, issued quite recently 

tions for boys j ■> ^ J 

in connection with the Men and 
Eeligion Forward Movement, lists over forty 
organizations for boys besides the junior denomi- 
national societies. Some of these have a military 
cast, as the Boys' Brigade ; others appeal to the 
chivalrio and idealistic, as the Knights of King 
Arthur and the Knights of the Holy Grail ; others 
are of a philanthropic, literary, or religious char- 
acter. The variety of these organizations gives 
reason for the hope that every locality may find 
one that is adapted to its needs. The one which 
seems to have awakened the widest interest, by 
adapting itself to the varied activities of boy life, 
— the Boy Scouts, — must everywhere claim the 
attention of those who believe in boyhood. 

The Boy Scouts of America was organized only 
a few years ago, the formal incorporation taking 
place in Washington, D. C, on February 8, 1910. 
The spirit of interest in its beginnings was well 

' Messages of the Men and Eeligion Forward Movement, vol. V, 
pp. 154, 155. 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 175 

set forth by Jacob Riis, in an article in The Out- 
look^ in which he describes the meeting of a score 
of men who sat around, a table in 
„ ^ °^ an office in New York City, dis- 

Scouts , IIP 

cussing, pro and con, the value of 
the Scout movement. One man, on being asked 
what he thought of the new organization, read 
from the evening paper of the grief and indigna- 
tion of the Park Commissioner over the stoning 
by some boys of two of the most beautiful swans 
in Central Park. " Now," said the man, " ten to 
one those boys were not out to kill swans. They 
were on a hunt, — pioneers or Indians likely, — and 
they came across this splendid game and stalked 
it. They had no idea of grieving the Park Com- 
missioner or causing the city loss. They were en- 
gaged in legitimate sport, — legitimate from the 
boy's point of view. The city had shut him up 
between its stone walls with all his primitive in- 
stincts, and had provided no outlet for them. 
That last is what scouting does. Being Indians, 
they killed the swans ; as Scouts they would have 
protected them. And they would have had just 
as much fun — in fact, more ; they would not have 
had to run from anybody. Everybody would 
have been the gainer. The swans would have 
been saved, the boys would have been saved, for if 
they are caught they will be locked up. There it 
is, the whole case in a nutshell. The Scouts win ! " 
Both because of such earnest advocacy of the 



176 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

new organization, and for other reasons, the Boy 
Scouts have been widely organized, and recently 
tabulated statistics show that T,000 scout masters 
are now reaching about 300,000 boys between the 
ages of 12 and 18 years. 

The organization really had its beginnings in 
America when Ernest Thompson Seton organized 
in 1902 his first tribe of Woodcraft Indians. 
Stimulus was also given to the idea in a similar 
way by the organization in 1905 of the Sons of 
Daniel Boone, by Daniel Carter Beard, the author 
and naturalist. When Sir Baden-Powell looked 
about for a model for a new club for English 
boys, he patterned his Boy Scouts after these 
American organizations, incorporating certain 
ideas of his own. Later a union of effort on the 
part of Mr. Seton and the distinguished head of the 
Boy Scouts resulted in the work among American 
boys being taken in charge by Mr. Seton, while 
Sir Baden-Powell was to conduct the work in 
England, — the whole organization to be known as 
the " Boy Scouts." In this country the names of 
such men as Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, 
Theodore Eoosevelt, Jacob Eiis, Josiah Strong, 
David Starr Jordan, and a multitude of others of 
prominence are associated with the movement, as 
oflS.cers and members of the ISTational Council. 

The work of the Boy Scouts incorporates a 
happy combination of work and play as repre- 
sented by what are called in scout-lore ''scout- 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 



177 



The Scout 
Law 



craft," " woodcraft," " campcraft," and such valu- 
able knowledge as first-aid and life-saving, lessons 
on patriotism and citizenship, etc., 
combined with games, athletics, 
manual training, and various lit- 
erary and social features. The principles of 
the Scouts are represented in the twelve points 
of the Scout Law, which every boy must know 
before becoming a " Tenderfoot " — the first degree 
of the three classes of Scouts. This law is as 
follows : 



(1 

(2; 

(3 

(4: 

(5 
(6 

(7 

(»: 

(9: 

(lo: 

(11 

(12; 



A Scout is trustworthy. 
A Scout is loyal. 
A Scout is helpful. 
A Scout is friendly. 
A Scout is courteous. 
A Scout is kind. 
A Scout is obedient. 
A Scout is cheerful. 
A Scout is thrifty. 
A Scout is brave. 
A Scout is clean. 
A Scout is reverent. 



For advancement to the grade of Second-Class 
Scout, the boy must have a certain proficiency 
in knowledge, and at least one 
month's service as a Tenderfoot. 
A series of harder tests must be 
complied with before he is again advanced to the 
position of First-Class Scout. After this there 



Plan of 
organization 



178 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOK 

are various badges of merit which may be won. 

Uniforms and badges are provided for each class 

of Scouts, and the boys are organized into patrol 

groups of eight, with a patrol leader. The whole 

organization, called a troop, is headed by a Scout 

Master, who must be a man of at least twenty-one 

years of age. The troops are under the direction 

of a local couQcil composed of leading men of the 

community who are willing to act in that capacity. 

As to the results of this organized work with 

boys, a great cloud of witnesses are anxious to 

testify. A mother writes to her 

-, favorite woman's magazine and 

results o 

tells how the " bully," the " brag- 
gart," and the " rowdy," and above all the " boy 
she loved the most," were all transformed by the 
Scout movement in her town. A judge of the 
Juvenile Court in Kansas City says, " If every 
boy in our city would join, the gangs would dis- 
appear and the Juvenile Court would soon be a 
stranger to the youth, and we would rear a gen- 
eration of men that would not require much police 
protection. I have never had a Boy Scout in my 
Court, and there are 1,200 of them in Kansas 
City." The old soldiers who attended the 50th 
Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg spoke of the 
kindness of the four hundred Boy Scouts who 
were on hand to render assistance to the veterans, 
and the press correspondent said the Scouts " made 
good with a bang." The Outlook says, " JSTo move- 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 179 

ment of our time toward child betterment has 
been more practical than the Scout movement. 
No wonder that its progress has been inspiring." 
The motto of the Scouts, "Be prepared," has 
caused them to measure up to the need at the 
most critical times ; and the precept, " Do a good 
turn to some one every day," has borne such sur- 
prising fruitage in so many instances that courtesy 
is becoming a habit wherever the influence of 
Scoutcraft is felt. 

If a more detailed illustration be sought, we 

need but refer to the story told by Jacob Riis in 

a leading New York weekly. It 

Where the i 4. f * ^i, a 

relates to one of the newer and 
Scouts won 

more progressive towns of the 
South, a place where the population had trebled 
in a little over a decade, and where " every in- 
fluence for good and bad was working overtime." 
The churches and Sunday-schools were well at- 
tended, but there were no playgrounds, no Ju- 
venile Court or probation officer. The Grand 
Jury in its attempts to regulate conditions among 
the rising generation had caused ninety-five boys 
in the town to appear in the police court from one 
to twenty times. What to do as a measure of re- 
lief was a hard question. There had been at- 
tempts made to organize the Boy Scouts, but suc- 
cess in the matter was finally assured only when 
the Men and Religion Forward Movement struck 
the city. 



180 OHAEACTEE THROUGH EECEEATION 

As a result of the boys' own choice, and a call 
that could not be denied, a young lawyer, with 
little time but with a love for boys, took the position 
of Scout Master. Says Mr. Kiis : " When I was 
there he had enlisted seven of the ninety-five, — 
the seven worst, some of the citizens told me, — 
and they had all made good. He and the troop 
were giving them a chance to be good rather than 
bad, and they took it. The town that had pooh- 
poohed the Scouts was getting behind them, 
Chamber of Commerce, Woman's Club, and all. 
These were working hand in hand for a Juvenile 
Court and a social-center in connection with the 
parish-house of a local church. And the boys ? 
As I said, they were having a good time ; they 
were not thinking of the morrow — not they — but 
of the fun they could have to-day. They had a 
camp two miles away where they slept in tents, 
did all the chores, wigwagged from knob to knob, 
and explored the bowels of the earth, for it was a 
cave country. In bad weather they held their 
meetings in town, did stunts in the gym of the 
Congregational Church, and flourished exceed- 
ingly. Two new groups were forming, and lead- 
ers were coming from the original one and from 
the normal college. The whole town looked 
toward a brighter future." 

Thus does the spirit of the boy respond to the 
magic touch of sympathy and the presentation 
of the higher ideal, and out of the raw material 



THE SPOETS OF BOYS 181 

of boyhood are evolved the elements of true man- 
liness. During a pastorate of over twenty years 
and a previous period in Sun- 

A tribute to my , , , i j.i i i 

^ , . ^ day-school work, there has been 

boy friends "^ ^ . 

committed to the writer no hap- 
pier work than the training of boy life in the 
younger and adolescent years. Memory makes 
bright the pictures of days in camp and woodland 
with a chosen crowd of boys, and afternoon and 
evening hours spent in literary enjoyments with a 
boy companion. Boys now grown to manhood 
and some of them graduated from college ; some 
seasoned by the years of toil, and some with boys 
of their own to train ; some who have gone to the 
long beyond and whose presence is but a memory, 
— these, my boy friends, have all been my teach- 
ers, for from such as they has come that awaken- 
ing which has made me understand better how 
every man must become a child in order to enter 
into the kingdom of larger life. To each and all 
my boy friends, and especially to Harry, — who 
left me on the eve of his graduation from his 
high-school course, and whom I shall not see 
again until I meet him on the hills across the 
river, — I would sing a remodeled version of the 
words of James Whitcomb Eiley : 

" Harry, my boy-friend, brave and strong ! 
Ob, you were as jolly as you were young ; 
For all the laughs of the lyre belong 
To the boy-friend all unsung. 



182 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

*' So I want to sing something in your behalf ; 
To clang some chords that shall sweetly tell 
Of the wholesomeness of your joyous laugh 
And the voice I loved so well. 

" I want to give tribute in gentler ways 
Than prose can be made to do, 
To our well-loved friends of other days, 
Boys dear to me and you. 

" I want them to know that our quietest nights, 
And the days overflowing with noise, 
Are remembered among my choicest delights 
As I think of the old-time boys. 

" I want them to think of the harmony clear, 
Forgetting each note that was wrong ; 
For time as it flies brings forth the grave fear 
That I failed in my old-time song. 

" "With the lilt of the lark and the freshness of spring, 
As a troubadour 'neath starry sky, 
I laud my boy-friend, and joyfully sing 
To comrades of days gone by. 

" And these are the princes to which I would sing,— 
Would drape and garnish in velvet line, — 
For courtly and true as earth's noblest kings. 
Are these brave boy-friends of mine." 



CHAPTER XII 
THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 

A COMPARISON of the relative efforts to furnish 
recreational facilities for boys and for girls will 
show that by far the larger amount 
of energy and. expense is devoted to 
boys' sports. A tabulation of or- 
ganized work for boys and girls, recently made for 
the Child Welfare Exhibit in New York City, 
revealed the fact that twenty times as much work 
of this kind was being done for the boy as for his 
sister. A worker with girls instances a certain 
high school in Washington, D. C, where nearly 
three hundred dollars was raised by solicitation 
by the pupils to provide the year's outdoor recrea- 
tion for the school. Notwithstanding the fact that 
the larger amount of money was brought in by the 
girls, it was found on careful examination at the 
close of the year that but two dollars had been 
spent for their benefit. As the result of this a 
committee was appointed to find ways for helping 
the girls in recreational matters, and the next year 
the work was organized along more liberal and 
equitable lines. 

The neglect of the play development of girls 
183 



184 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

possibly arises from the fact that the boy, by his 
inclination to acts of youthful barbarism, has de- 
manded so much of our thought 
^° and attention that we have had 

reason 

little time to think of the more 
quietly voiced need of the girl. Some time ago the 
boy was discovered, and the shock of surprise from 
the great need he presented at first stunned us. 
Having now accustomed ourselves to his presence, 
and in some degree provided for his needs, it is time 
our thought should turn to the girl, who will be 
found standing not far away. A similar recrea- 
tional life to that enjoyed by her brother will 
yield its helpful influences in the molding of a 
more symmetrical and beautiful womanhood for 
our girls. 

The girl of the present day lives in an age more 
favorable to full-orbed development than was the 

era of her mother and her'grand- 
,. ." . mother. Influences unfelt by the 

limitations "^ 

women of thirty and forty years 
ago are common to this newer woman's age. Ac- 
cording to certain literature of a generation ago, 
the old-fashioned heroine was a frail specimen of 
humanity, given to frequent faints and periodical 
headaches, knowing little beyond the narrow circle 
of society and the confines of home life. Such a 
generation seems to have had little girlhood, and 
to have aged rapidly. A French writer, during 
the Revolutionary "War in America, in speaking of 



THE GIEL AND HER EECEEATIONS 185 

our women, said : " At twenty years they no longer 
have the freshness of youth ; at thirty-five or forty 
they are wrinkled and decrepit. " Another French- 
man, who was an ambassador in this country dur- 
ing the years 1804-14, wrote: "At the age of 
twenty-five their form changes, and at thirty their 
charms have disappeared." 

That such statements cannot be made concern- 
ing our women of to-day is probably due to the 
fact that physical education has 

The present need , i . <> . i . j 

^ brought forth a stronger race, and 

the recreational advantages of a 
later age have lightened the load of care. Among 
girls and women, however, there is still the tend- 
ency to a life of strain and stress. ISTerves are the 
national ailment of women. Restrictions of social 
life, conditions of dress, and the demands of con- 
ventionality, have all combined to shorten the 
period of a girl's childhood. Girls get old too 
soon. Miss Beulah Kennard, an authority on 
playground work, says concerning the girl and the 
playground, "Unless she is very little, the play- 
ground girl thinks it improper to jump and 
run." And again, " The great need which the girl 
brings to the playground is the need for a longer 
childhood, with time and material for growth." 

The increase of physical vigor and the relief 
from many of the restraints which belonged to a 
former age have widened the life of women and 
girls in the present day. As a result the girl very 



186 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

early finds herself engaged in occupations in the 

work-a-day world. Statistics show that 59 per 

cent, of the young women in 

e wor ing America between the ages of 16 

and 20 years are engaged in gain- 
ful occupations, and the percentage is yearly in- 
creasing. Covering a broader scope in the age 
limits, we find that the number of self-supporting 
women in this country in 1910 was 8,0Y5,7T2, which 
represents 23.4 per cent, of the entire female popu- 
lation of the United States over the age of ten years. 
Aside from those in professional life, the number 
employed as clerks and factory-hands, working 
long hours for small pay, must be the subject of 
consideration when we think of the girl's recrea- 
tional life. The toll of toil on physical energy, 
unrelieved by helpful amusement, is often the 
reason of the breakdown of virtue. A shop-girl 
said on Saturday night, " Oh, I'm so dead tired, I 
don't care where I go." Such despair is the be- 
ginning of ruin. The industrial demands of the 
age upon girlhood call loudly for recreational 
influences which shall relieve mind and body 
in an atmosphere where the soul may expand as 
well. 

In addition to this industrial enlargement, there 
has come a wider social expansion. Following the 
much misunderstood advice of St. Paul, for many 
years women kept silence in the churches, — but the 
rule holds good no longer. The advent of the 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 187 

young people's societies broke the last link of 

the chains binding woman's religious expression, 

and the social meetings of the 

Woman's new , , i i j 

churches are now largely made up 
of the female sex. In the church, 
the club, and the school the young girl and her 
mother are enjoying side by side that freedom of 
speech which belongs to the larger liberty. And 
physical freedom has come as well. An instance 
in point is mentioned by a distinguished Southern 
woman, who tells of a young lady acquaintance in 
New Orleans. Some years ago, she was not al- 
lowed by her parents to go shopping on the most 
elegant business street of that city without a 
chaperone. Afterward she became a reporter for 
a city paper, and now goes out at all times, night 
or day, unattended. 

This larger life of girls and women is not ac- 
cepted with complacence by many, and it would 
be folly to say that it is not at- 
, f ^ ^ tended with danger. The wave 

larger freedom o 

of "feminism," which inclines 
women to political and public life, will, it is 
maintained, result in a masculine womanhood 
which shall cause our girls to reject marriage 
and the quieter associations of family life. It is 
feared, therefore, that this tendency to more public 
life by the female sex will destroy the desire for 
motherhood, break down the home, and work dis- 
9&tev to the nation. 



188 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EBCEEATIOK 

In the light of these recent social changes, and 
in view of the increasing temptations and physical 
dangers to which the social evil is subjecting our 
girls, it may be seen that the problem of a girl's 
recreational life is not easy of solution. As has 
already been indicated, she is the subject of the 
designs of evil men, and in our large cities the 
pathway to ruin is made easy by the way of the 
public dance-hall, the pleasure-park, and the 
saloon, there being plenty of the male sex who 
are willing to pay the financial cost. The recent 
investigations concerning wages paid to working- 
girls in the department stores of Chicago, have 
settled in the minds of many a conviction that 
low wages are the accompaniment of the lustful 
wickedness that brings ruin to so many of the 
daughters of men. 

A life incident may be mentioned by the author. 

"When he knew the subject of the story she was a 

sunny-faced little girl of about ten 

An incident t-, -, j . 

. years. J^or several years during 

childhood Bertha made her home 
with an elder sister, where her happy disposition 
and care-free spirit made her many friends. The 
childish enthusiasm with which she entered into 
the exercises of the Sunday-school and the church 
are well remembered, with the evidence she gave 
of a desire to follow the Christ of the children. 
One evening, after days of training by her sister, 
she recited in a children's temperance contest a 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIOKS 189 

stirring production, and amid the hearty cheers 
of the large congregation received a medal for 
her proficiency. Years passed, and in the mean- 
time the girl returned to her own home, and later 
as a young lady went to a large city on the west- 
ern coast. 

City life for the young woman is often perilous. 
It proved so in this case. Finding employment 
as a " cloak model " in one of the large depart- 
ment stores, Bertha was domiciled at one of the 
boarding-houses of the city, a poor substitute for 
a home. Possibly through the kindness of some 
associate shop-girl, she was introduced to " the 
set." It is easy to picture her at one of the public 
dance-halls of the city, — an attractive girl, with 
innocent country ways that made her the easy 
mark for designing men. Here, — or in some like 
resort, — she meets a young man whose dress and 
manners indicate the gentleman. His way is de- 
lightfully care-free, and his presence a veritable 
tonic after a weary day in the store. He bestows 
upon her those little flatteries dear to girlish 
hearts, and, living in that atmosphere of appre- 
ciation which she had not known since school-days 
in the village home in a time w^hich now seems so 
long ago, the girl is easily led far down a path she 
had never before trodden. But life is different 
now ; indeed, in order that she should seem to 
live in a different world, she has taken another 
name, — ^Yiolet. Either through her own caprice 



190 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATIOIT 

or by the desire of her male companion, her hair 
is bleached to a different hue. She associates with 
the cultured and captivating young man as her 
husband, and among the working-women of the 
city there is none so beautiful as Yiolet Sears. 
Disregarding the warnings of her elder sister and 
seldom writing to her parents, the flowery path 
of peril is traveled, until one day a pistol-shot, — 
one, and then another, — startles the neighborhood 
where the rooms of this couple are located. Two 
dead bodies are taken up by stranger hands. 
That of the girl is sent to the far-off Minnesota 
home, where, bowing low over the casket, a 
broken-hearted father and mother and an elder 
sister drop their tears on the changed face of one 
who went the wrong way to find the path of 
pleasure. 

The remedies proposed for the social evil are 

many, but the remedial agencies that do not take 

into account the fact that un- 

Remedies for the /, -,-, . , 777 

favoraote environment and lack, 
social evil "^ 

of healthful recreational facilities 
are factors in the problem will not reach the solu- 
tion. The settlement houses, the institutional 
church, the Young Men's and Young Women's 
Christian Associations, and the recreation centers 
provided by public funds have in large measure 
relieved the unhealthful pleasure condition of 
some of the large cities. As a further means of 
relief the movement which is now opening the 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 191 

schoolliouses in our cities as evening recreation 
centers seems to be a very practical help. A 
writer in a recent magazine informs us that fifty- 
five school-buildings in New York City are being 
used in this way, with others being added con- 
stantly, the plan having been introduced in Brook- 
lyn about seven years ago. 

The public playground has a mission to girls as 
well as to boys. The outdoor life which it fosters, 
and the tendency to free youthful sports cannot 
but be of advantage to growing girls. Quoting 
again from Miss Kennard, let us observe more in 
detail the benefit of play in the life of girls : " Un- 
fortunately the dangers of girls have not been so 
clearly seen as of boys, because girls are more pass- 
ive and secretive. Would that the chivalrous 
opinion of Jacob Kiis, that 'aU girls are good,' 
were according to fact ! Only those familiar with 
girls in reformatory institutions have a just idea 
of the uncleanness of mind, and sometimes of 
body, that is found among them. The vicious 
and the depraved are rare, but the girl filled with 
morbid curiosity and open to unhealthy sugges- 
tions is far too common. Another class is pure- 
minded but weak, and so lacking in self-control as 
to become the easy prey to stronger natures. A 
large number of perfectly good girls show an ex- 
cessive sentimental development. . . . But all 
the cobwebbed corners of their minds are swept 
clear by the invigorating air of the playground. 



192 OHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEBATION 

I have seen a girl almost transformed by a season 
of basket-ball or tennis. She was not only brighter 
and happier, but more truly womanly." 

Some manifest differences have been noticed 

between the relation to play of women and girls 

and that of men and boys. Some 

Play among girls j ^^^ ^„^^ ^^j^^j j^ ^ 

differs from that f, , . , ., , , « 

among boys ' ^^^^ ^^ S^^^^^ possibly because of 
the fact that the fighting element 
does not enter into the play of girls. This is de- 
cidedly a boy trait, and comes perhaps from the 
early days when men engaged in battle while 
women superintended the work of the home. 
The team game has its place, however, in the 
sports of girls,— not for competitive excellence, 
but for that association and co-operative play 
which shall prepare the player for the place in 
social life which women are more and more 
destined to fill. Woman's place in athletics and 
physical education is also different from man's, 
for many of the more strenuous exercises helpful 
to men are not recommended for women. Eliza- 
beth Burchenal, prominent in the physical educa- 
tion of girls in ISTew York City, recommends as 
sports for women: Basket-ball, indoor baseball, 
field-hockey, tennis, golf, walking, running, climb- 
ing, skating, horseback riding, snowshoeing, ski- 
ing, paddling, and coasting. At the same time 
she discourages participation in track athletics and 
record contests. Most women, however, are in- 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 193 

clined to take too little physical exercise of the 
exhilarating sort. Our American girls need to 
cultivate that hearty love for the athletic which 
is shown in English women who walk miles for 
the love of walking. The spirited outdoor game 
and the morning "hike" are antidotes to the 
headaches caused by poorly ventilated rooms, and 
melancholia yields to the healthful association with 
congenial companions in the recreational life, 

looting the further difference between girls and 

boys in relation to amusement, it is of value that 

we see the kind of organizations 

Character of girls' . , , . , . -. , . . 

. . mto which ffirls combme. Ac- 

organizations ° 

cording to Dr. Sheldon,' girls form 
three times as many secret societies as boys, five 
times as many social societies, three times as many 
industrial, twice the number of philanthropic, and 
three times as many literary societies, but only 
one-fourth as many predatory, and one-seventh as 
many athletic societies. Physical activity is 
found prominent in only ten per cent, of the girls' 
societies as against seventy-seven per cent, among 
the boys. The study of the voluntary organiza- 
tions of boys and girls shows that the two sexes 
seldom organize themselves together. In the ear- 
lier years of childhood recreational facilities may 
accomplish good work in this way, but when the 
boy reaches the real organizing age, — from ten to 
sixteen years, — it is the judgment of experienced 

^ William Byron Forbush, The Boy Problem, 5th edition, p. 46. 



194 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EEOEEATION 

workers with adolescents that recreational de- 
velopment is more successful in separate organiza- 
tions. There is much that can be taught, and 
there are advantages of entertainment that can be 
enjoyed, only in the exclusive organization. 

Mrs. Luther H. Gulick, the wife of Dr. Gulick, 

previously referred to, was asked by some of her 

friends, who complained that their 

The Camp Fire , , , , , . , . • j 

^. , daughters took no mterest m do- 

Girls o . __. - 

mestic occupations, " How do you 
manage to make your daughters cook and sew and 
not complaiu about it ? " As an answer to that 
question Dr. and Mrs. Gulick opened their " Camp 
"Wohelo " in the woods of Maine to a number of 
girls besides their own. This camp, where Mrs. 
Gulick and her four daughters, dressed in camp cos- 
tume, with their hair in braids and their feet in moc- 
casins, enjoy their vacation together, was the birth- 
place of the organization known as the Camp Fire 
Girls. Though there may be other organizations 
for the growing girl that accomplish similar ex- 
cellent results, this new girls' club certainly has dis- 
tinctive features that make it one of the very best. 
" Wohelo," — a watchword coined by Mrs. Gulick 
from a combination of the first two letters of the 

three words, "work," "health," and 
•• Wohelo " " love," — suggests the idea back of 

the new organization. Its aim is 
to train the girls through the recreational spirit, 
which is introduced even into the common duties 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 195 

of life, to a higher appreciation of domestic pur- 
suits, a development of healthful physical life 
through contact with nature, and a right use of 
the romantic and sentimental, which shall culmi- 
nate in love of home and all-round character de- 
velopment. Taking advantage of the fact that 
the love for the romantic and the desire for ad- 
venture are leading elements in luring the girl 
from the right path, the Camp Fire Girls seek to 
put into life the spirit of romance, which shall 
demonstrate that common, everyday things are 
not without their halo of beauty. 

The meeting-place of the girls is about the camp 
fire, in the open woods if possible. Seated on the 
ground around the fire and led by the head of the 
club, the Guardian of the Fire, the circle join in 
the song-cry of the organization : 

" Wohelo for work, 
"Wohelo for health, 
Wohelo, Wohelo, Wohelo for love." 

Then all repeat the Ode to Fire : 

' ' O Fire ! Long years ago when our fathers f oaght with great 
animals, 

You were their protection ; 

From the cruel cold of winter you saved them. 

When they needed food you changed the flesh of beasts into 
savory meat for them. 

During all the ages your mysterious flame has been a sym- 
bol to them for Spirit. 

So to-night we light our fire in remembrance of the Great 
Spirit who gave you to us." 



196 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

A girl who wishes to join the Camp Fire Girls 

must know the Law of the Camp 

r t t^ X-. Tire. At the regular monthly 

of the Camp Fire ° ^ e " 

meeting she must come before 
the others, and say : 

'' It is my desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and 
to obey the Law of the Camp Fire, which is to : 

Seek beauty, 
Give service, 
Pursue knowledge, 
Be trustworthy. 
Hold on to health. 
Glorify work. 
Be happy. 

"This Law of the Camp Fire I will strive to 
follow." 

The three divisions or degrees of the club are 
Wood Gatherer, Fire Maker, and Torch Bearer. 

To become a "Wood Gatherer, a girl must fulfil 
the following six requirements : Be a member of 
a Camp Fire for at least two months ; attend at 
least six weekly meetings and two ceremonial 
meetings ; select a name and symbol ; make her 
headband ; have the ceremonial dress ; win in ad- 
dition at least ten honors in health craft, home 
craft, nature lore, camp craft, hand craft, business, 
or patriotism. 

Advancement from a Wood Gatherer to a 
Fire Maker is secured when the candidate ful- 



THE GIEL AND HEE EECEEATIONS 197 

fils fourteen additional requirements. Prominent 

among these the candidate must prepare and serve 

two meals at weekly meetings; 

Advancement , t i - i i • j. 

. , hem a dish towel : darn a pair or 

m degrees . ' ^ 

stockings ; know the causes of in- 
fant mortality and to what extent it has been 
reduced in American communities ; know all that 
girls of her age should know about herself ; tie a 
square knot ; sleep with open windows ; and learn 
a poem of not less than twenty-five lines in length. 
In addition, she must also win twenty honors 
selected from the different crafts. Having ac- 
complished this, the candidate appears at the 
monthly meeting, saying : 

" As fuel is brought to the fire 
So I purpose to bring 
My strength, 
My ambition, 
My heart's desire, 
My joy, 

And my sorrow. 
To the fire of humankind ; 
For I will tend, 
As my fathers have tended, 
And my fathers' fathers 
Since time began, 
The fire that is called 
The love of man for man. 
The love of man for God." 

For advancement to the third degree. Torch 
Bearer, the girl must have developed the capacity 



198 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

for leadership and fulfilled other requirements, 
including fifteen craft honors. Again coming be- 
fore the fire she says : 

"The light that has been given to me, 
I desire to pass undimmed to others." 

The dress of the girls is a plain blouse, with 

emblems on the sleeve indicating the various 

ranks ; a skirt buttoned all the 

s.ndlwlTds "^^y ^^^^ the front, with a large 

pocket ; practical bloomers for 
camping, plain hat, and ceremonial Indian dress. 
In addition to the Wood Gatherer's ring, a brace- 
let and pin are provided for the other two degrees ; 
and as honors for proficiency in the various crafts, 
strings of beads in various symbolical colors are 
given. The pin, bracelet, and ring are appro- 
priately inscribed, and the following suggestive 
lines are recited by the Guardian when presenting 
the ring to a Wood Gatherer : 

" As fagots are brought from the forest, 
Firmly held by the sinews which bind them, 
So cleave to these others, your sisters, 
Whenever, wherever you find them. 

" Be strong as the fagots are sturdy ; 
Be true to your deepest desire ; 
Be true to the truth that is in you ; 
And — follow the Law of the Fire." 

The development of social interest, the emphasis 
on the beauty of home craft, the contact with the 
romantic surroundings of nature which accompany 



THE GIEL A^T> HER EECEEATIOKS 199 

the outings in the woods, the meetings around 

the camp fire beneath the silent stars, — all under 

the leadership of some good 

Aims to develop -n -i j.\. • i j.* 

, .^ , woman, — will leave their lasting 

the ideal woman , ' . , ° 

impression upon growing girlhood. 
But whether in woods or indoors, the spirit of 
that beautiful closing ode, as sung by girlish 
voices, will write its lesson on the heart of every 
hearer : 

"Lay me to sleep in the sheltering flame, 
O Master of the Hidden Fire, 
Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me 
My soul's desiie. 

** In flame of service bathe my mind, 
O Master of the Hidden Fire, 
That when I wake, clear-eyed may be 
My soul's desire." 

By such organization of girls and watchcare 
over their interests, we shall secure for them a 
happy girlhood, and make possible a race of 
wives and mothers which shall indeed fulfil the 
ideal of the Wise Man of old : 

"A worthy woman who can find? 
For her price is far above rubies. 
The heart of her husband trusteth in her, 
And he shall have no lack of gain. 
She doeth him good and not evil 
All the days of her life. 
She seeketh wool and flax, 
And worketh willingly with her hands. 
She is like the merchant-ships ; 
She bringeth her bread from afar. 



200 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

She layeth her hands to the distaff, 

And her hands hold the spindle. 

She stretoheth out her hand to the poor ; 

Yea, she reaoheth forth her hands to the needy« 

» * * * * 

She maketh for herself carpets of tapestry ; 
Her clothing is fine linen and purple. 

***** 
Strength and dignity are her clothing ; 
And she laugheth at the time to come. 
She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; 
And the law of kindness is on her tongue. 
She looketh well to the ways of her household, 
And eateth not the bread of idleness. 
Her children rise up, and call her blessed ; 
Her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying : 
Many daughters have done worthily. 
But thou exoellest them all." 



CHAPTER Xm 

THE LUEE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 

The friendship between man and nature is be- 
coming stronger as human knowledge increases. 
The beneficial effects of the open- 
Man's recreation ^^ treatment of disease, and the 

out-of-doors i^QQd of times of seclusion from 

the turmoil of civilized existence, 
are leading those whom circumstances at all per- 
mit, to spend some part of their time in closer 
touch with nature. While the population is more 
and more centering in the cities, there is, after all, 
in the heart of civihzed man an inherent love for 
the open. When opportunity affords, the cares 
of business life are thrown off and the restraints 
of civilization laid aside while man hies himself 
to the wilderness. An examination of the recrea- 
tions of leading men will reveal that a very large 
part of their favorite pastimes has to do with 
the outdoor pleasures. To the thinkers of the 
world, and those on whom the burdens of leader- 
ship rest, the desert and the solitary place seem to 
be of as much value in revivifying life and open- 
ing new vistas of truth as were the years in 
Midian to Moses or the quiet home at Nazareth to 
the Master of men. 

201 



202 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

The woods and the fields are the natural play- 
grounds of youth as well. The hills and the dales 
of the open country, with their 

Nature's legacy • j. j. j t i_ j 

hiid quiet streams and cooling shade, 

seem calling to the children to 
come and enjoy their beauty and blessing. The 
child's right to the inheritance of nature's gifts 
has been beautifully set forth in a peculiar " last 
will and testament," written, it is said, by a man 
who died some years ago in an Illinois hospital 
for the insane. An extract from this strange doc- 
ument is as follows : 

" I leave to the children exclusively, but only 
for the life of their childhood, all and every, the 
dandelions of the field and the daisies thereof, and 
the right to play among them freely, according to 
the custom of children, warning them at the same 
time against the thistles. And I devise to the 
children the yellow shores of the creeks and the 
golden sands beneath the waters thereof, with the 
dragon-flies that skim the surface of said waters, 
and the white clouds that float high over the giant 
trees. And I leave to the children the long, long 
days to be merry in, in a thousand ways, and the 
JSTight and the Moon, and the train of the Milky 
Way to wonder at. I devise to boys, jointly, all 
the useless fields and idle commons, where ball 
may be played ; and all the snow-clad hills, where 
one may coast, and all the streams and ponds, 
where one may skate, to have and to hold the 



THE LURE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 203 

same for the period of their boyhood. And all 
the clover blossoms and butterflies thereof ; and 
all the woods, with their appurtenances of squir- 
rels and whirring birds and echoes and strange 
noises ; and all the distant places which may be 
visited, together with the adventures there found, 
I do give to said boys to be theirs ; and I give to 
said boys each his own place at the fireside at 
night, with all pictures that may be seen in the 
burning wood or coal, to enjoy without let or hin- 
drance and without any encumbrance of cares." 

It is little wonder, with so rich a legacy, that 

boys like Yan, in Ernest Thompson Seton's Two 

Little Siwages, should have so 

or an pay g^pQj^nr a nature hunger that even 

in nature study o ° 

the prohibitions of unwise parents, 
or the lack of book and teacher, could not prevent 
their getting acquainted with God's great world. 
Indeed, among the most pleasurable ways of learn- 
ing is the study of nature from natural objects. 
The instructor in botany and zoology leads his 
students to the living book of nature, with the 
text-book serving only as a guide-post to the 
larger book of life. Work and play are adroitly 
woven together in the study of nature. The col- 
lecting instinct finds a useful avenue of outlet in 
the bringing together of various objects of nature, 
— mounted specimens of plants, small animals and 
insects, — and is a constant source of instruction 
and pleasure. The boy who enjoys the perverted 



204 CHAEAOTER THROUGH EECEEATION 

pleasure of " bird's-nesting " or torturing small 
animals may have his thought turned to more 
helpful occupations by interesting him in a scien- 
tific study of birds' habits, and the classification 
of insects and animals. The interest taken in the 
birds and the discovery of their helpful ministra- 
tions to man will make life, both animal and hu- 
man, seem more sacred to the boy, and will exer- 
cise a refining influence upon his character. 

The destruction of animal life by the sport of 
the hunter, simply for the pleasure of killing, 

should not be encouraged on the 
_ ^ part of the growing boy. Rather 

should we find place in his life 
for that sentiment which was awakened in the 
heart of a young Russian on his first hunt. "When 
Turgenef, the novelist, was a boy of ten his 
father took him on a bird hunt. Being successful 
in bringing down a golden pheasant by his first 
shot, he watched the bird as it fell and fluttered 
its Hfe away. With the last flutter it reached its 
nest, where the young and helpless birds were 
waiting, and with a look at the young hunter 
which he long remembered, its head fell to one 
side and life was extinct. The boy, on being 
commended by his father for his success, cried 
out : " Never, father, never again shall I destroy 
any living creature ! If this is sport, I will have 
none of it. Life is more beautiful to me than death, 
and since I cannot give life, I will not take it." 



THE LTJEE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 205 

"While the necessary taking of animal life is of 

course not contrary to the laws of man's higher 

nature, we can but be glad that 

\A7oTjfQTi dcstriic™ 

f "Id lif widespread game laws give protec- 
tion to harmless animals in the 
season while rearing their young, and that the 
tendency is in the direction of a more merciful 
killing of animals which are slaughtered for food 
or for scientific and mechanical purposes. The 
wanton destruction of birds by the thoughtless 
sportsman receives frequent rebuke in the pub- 
lished government documents which show how 
man and vegetation are befriended by them. The 
cruel demands of fashion for bird ornaments have 
been so thoroughly denounced that the killing of 
birds of plumage can no longer be regarded as an 
innocent occupation. Thomas B. Reed, for so 
many years Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives, was a firm believer in the right of all crea- 
tures to live. He once said to a friend, " I never 
shot but one bird in my life. I spent a whole day 
in doing it. It was a sandpiper. I chased him for 
hours up and down a millstream. When at last I 
potted him, and held him up by one of his poor 
little legs, I never felt more ashamed of myself in 
all my life. I hid him in my coat-tail pocket for 
fear some one would see how big I was and how 
small the victim, and I never will be guilty again 
of the cowardice of such an unequal battle." 
Even so enthusiastic a hunter as Roosevelt 



206 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

recognizes the fact that there are limits to the in- 
dulgence of the sport, for he says in his Outdoor 
Pastimes of an American Hunter : " All hunters 
should be nature-lovers. It is to be hoped that the 
days of mere wasteful, boastful slaughter are past, 
and that from now on the hunter will stand fore- 
most in working for the preservation and perpetua- 
tion of the wild life, whether big or little." 

Among the sports of the devotee of outdoor life, 

perhaps there is none more popular than fishing. 

In following the art of the flsher- 

The fisher- i^ • i i n t 

, _ man, one certamly has a lonff line 

man s art , . 

of distinguished predecessors. As 
an occupation it has been the chief business of 
various peoples, and as a diversion it has enrolled 
many of the mighty. Some of the thinkers of 
earth, both of the prosaic and the poetic sort, have 
found a quickening of the imagination and a new 
inspiration while angling in the running stream. 
If they have been unsuccessful in catching fish, 
they have at least snared a few new thoughts, and 
thoughts to the thinker's market are of more value 
than many trout. The successful fisherman is 
doubtless born to his job ; — that is, he must have a 
natural hankering after the piscatorial art. Prob- 
ably no one who shared the early belief of Ben- 
jamin Franklin that it was wrong to eat fish, 
would be inclined to follow it. Franklin, how- 
ever, says that he gave up his scruples concerning 
the taking of fish life when he found that the 



THE LTJEE OF THE OUTDOOR LIFE 207 

larger fish ate the smaller ones. He judged it not 
wrong, then, to take the lives of those creatures 
who were such cannibals as to destroy their own 
kind, and forthwith proceeded to eat fish with 
great relish ! 

The lover of nature not only has intense inter- 
est in the animal creation, but to him the growing 
vegetation is a source of constant 

The child's garden , -p, . , , , . 

, charm. Every single green thing 

is alive with wonder. The micro- 
scope, revealing the beauty of plant life, is a veri- 
table kaleidoscope of delight to the child. In the 
modern play development in school and civic life 
the children's garden occupies a place of impor- 
tance. The unsightly school grounds and weedy 
vacant lots have been transformed into places of 
industry and beauty by the willingly bestowed 
labor of the boys and girls. The raising of vege- 
tables as well as flowers has resulted in the 
gardens being a means of financial return, while 
the profits of the experiment have been abundant 
both physically and mentally. A government re- 
port on the value of the school garden, recently 
issued, enumerates as some of its educational re- 
sults the cultivation of the habit of industry, skill 
with the hands, quick discrimination, systematic 
methods, a logical sequence based upon the natural 
order of things, the idea of the rights of owner- 
ship, business experience, and a knowledge of all 
the processes necessary to the growth of plant life. 



208 CHAEACTBR THEOUGH EECEEATION 

The planting and cultivation of these gardens is, 
especially to the city child, a purely recreational 
feature, and commends itself to instructors as a 
most enjoyable and useful form of nature work. 

The love of life in the open perhaps never 
reaches its climax of satisfaction, especially with 
boys, without the benefit of the 
outdoor camp. Indeed, this nat- 
ural instinct for life in the woods 
early found expression, among adults, in the tem- 
porary dwellings of the pioneer, and later in the 
religious meetings that were held in tents in 
" God's first temples." The same need is minis- 
tered to to-day by the Chautauqua assembly 
and its outdoor program. Here under canvas 
much of the best musical, literary, and oratorical 
talent is engaged in entertaining thousands in many 
a sylvan retreat. 

The camps for boys, and in lesser degree those 
for girls, have come to be an established part of 
the work with the young folk of the present day. 
From the standpoint of the boy, as well as that of 
the leader in charge, they are usually highly bene- 
ficial. There is a revealing of character, and a 
consequent fellowship, which the life indoors does 
not develop. As a certain boy friend of mine said 
when we were on a camping trip together, " You 
never know a fellow until you've been camping 
with him." These boy camps are being conducted 
every year by the Young Men's Christian Asso- 



THE LUEE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 209 

elation, and are a regular part of the work of the 
Boy Scouts and similar organized clubs. Sunday- 
school classes, both of boys and girls, under the 
oversight of their teachers, also carry on the camp 
work as a part of their regular activities. 

Carlyle Ellis, who, in a recently published 
article,' gives some details concerning the more 
elaborately organized boys' camps, remarks that 
no matter how much the science of camping may 
be developed, we have not got much beyond the 
old-fashioned, rough-and-ready formula for the 
conduct of camps for boys which says, "Keep 
them full and keep them tired ! " 

Games, sports, manual training, and other em- 
ployments fill the period of camp life. A camp 
activity which Mr. ElUs especially 
*™f^. notes is the keeping; of a record 

activities ^ ° 

by all the boys of the various 
species of birds discovered in the neighborhood. 
The results of this record are filed from year 
to year. It often happens that there are hab- 
its among the boys which need to be corrected, 
and new inspirations which must be given. The 
boy who has always been waited upon by his 
mother or the servants here takes his first lessons 
in self-reliance. The boy who has never known 
what it is to work with his hands here learns the 
joy of labor. The camp provides for one hour a 

^Carlyle Ellis, " Youug America in Camp," Everybody's Mag- 
azine, June, 1913, p. 723fE. 



210 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

day of manual training. A boy of eleven years, 
when his turn came to work at the bench, said, 
" What do I want to learn anything like that for ? 
I'll never have to work. My father's rich, and 
I'm going to be rich, too." " But what are you 
going to do when you're grown up ? " asked the 
instructor. " Oh, I'll travel around and have a 
good time." Under the influence of the camp 
spirit and the direction of a skilful leader, how- 
ever, this boy was soon engrossed in the making 
of a book-rack, and actually asked for a harder 
job as his next task. A director of a Moosehead 
Lake camp, so Mr, Ellis says, makes it a practice 
to require that all boys who wish to use tobacco 
in camp secure permission from theu' parents. 
The leader and his helpers having "sworn off," 
the idea soon gains popularity, and one by one the 
boys fall into line. The reform thus accomplished 
by their own action tends to make the abstinence 
permanent. 

The results of camp life in physical vigor and 
moral discipline are accompanied also by that 
exhilaration of spirit which makes one again and 
again respond to the call of the woodland, so fit- 
tingly echoed by Kipling : 

" Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? 
Who hath heard the birch -log burning ? 
Who is quick to read the noises of the night? 
Let him follow with the others, for the 
young man's feet are turning 
To the camps of proved desire and known delight." 



THE LUEE OE THE OUTDOOE LIFE 211 

Spring, summer, and early fall are of course the 

best seasons of the year for the full enjoyment of 

outdoor life, but nature's charms 

are not exhausted when winter's 

sports 

snows lie on the ground. The 
" old swimming hole " of summer becomes the 
skating pond of winter, and all the grassy hill- 
sides are converted into natural toboggan slides. 
The boys and girls in the country find sport 
plentiful on the many pleasant days which winter 
kindly gives. In the town and city the play- 
ground may at small expense be transformed into 
an artificial lake for skating. There will be an 
opportunity for the snow fort and the excitement 
of a snowball battle. The amateur sculptor will 
find a chance to get in his work ; while the snow 
man, with coal black eye and red flannel lip, will 
decorate the landscape. A young girl who has 
recently graduated from a school of art, having 
attained marked proficiency in sculpture, said that 
her first efforts in modeling were on the winter 
playgrounds of youth. She says, " I can remem- 
ber when I first ' found myself ' in regard to 
modeling. I was just a little girl, and started out 
one winter day to make a snow man, having in 
mind of course the usual pattern, — three round 
balls set one on top of the other. But as I worked 
on the top ball, I discovered that I could put shape 
to the little knob that was to serve as a nose, and 
that it was surprisingly little trouble to add a chin. 



212 CHARACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

The result was most gratifying. In this manner 
I worked until I had achieved what seemed to me 
a marvelous figure of a woman, seated." 

The value of winter as a time of sport is more 

evident in the northlands where the winters are 

long, and where the people are 

National winter , , . . , . 

more accustomed to a rie:orous cli- 

pastimes ° 

mate. In Norway the national 
pastime is represented by ski-running and ski- 
jumping. The people become very proficient on 
these long and narrow runners of wood. Great 
competitions in ski-running and jumping take place 
every year near Christiania, the contestants and 
spectators coming from long distances, — from Fin- 
land and Sweden, as well as from the most distant 
localities of Norway. It is said that the sport 
demands great nerve and presence of mind ; in 
jumping, especially, the thought and action must 
be quick ; only the strongest can stand the physical 
strain. The fitness of the sport for developing 
physical strength, self-reliance, and mental alert- 
ness, doubtless accounts for the compulsory re- 
quirement of ski-training in the Norwegian army, 
as well as the general popularity of the skis among 
this hardy people. 

The proficiency of the Norwegian on snow and 
ice is paralleled by the love of the Hollanders for 
the smooth ice of their frozen canals, where old 
and young engage in skating and sliding in their 
long but happy winters. In Canada, the tobog- 



THE LUEE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 213 

gan sports are participated in by all, and the Cana- 
dians' thorough enjoyment of the winter days 
is not at all dulled by the criticism of the China- 
man, who said concerning the toboggan slide, " It 
is alle one whiz-whiz ! Then walkee back one 
hour upee hill ! " 

It is maintained by naturalists that animals are 
especially playful in winter. Regarding a famil- 
iar white bird, common in winter 
Play necessary throughout the northern states and 
„^ . ^ Canada, Ernest Thompson Seton 

as in summer ' t^ 

says : " In midwinter in the far 
north, when the thermometer showed thirty de- 
grees below zero, and the chill blizzard was blow- 
ing on the plains, I have seen this brave little bird 
gleefully chasing his fellows, and pouring out, as 
he flew, his sweet voluble song with as much spirit 
as ever skylark has in the sunniest days of June." 
John Burroughs describes how the squirrels play 
tag with each other, while other naturalists tell 
how the otters, after preparing a roundabout path 
down a smooth slope at the water's edge, will en- 
joy themselves sliding down the path into the 
water. And the playful instinct of animals is 
similarly developed in the child. When winter 
comes, indoor sports do not suffice, Happy, and 
usually uncommonly healthy, is the outdoor boy 
or girl who knows the delights of coasting and 
skating and winter life in the open. 

Yiewing the winter sports of the peoples who, 



214 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

because of longer periods of cold weather, have 
come to emphasize these pleasures, and the ten- 
dency of children and animals to open-air enjoy- 
ment in winter, we can but regret that we of the 
more temperate climates have so 
sports little appreciation of winter's op- 

not enough • « t . -nl 

appreciated portunity for a good time. We 

have no national game that repre- 
sents American outdoor life in winter. A number 
of years ago it was customary for one of our north- 
ern cities to build an " ice palace," and have an 
accompanying festival of winter sports. But this 
was discontinued because of the fear, we are told, 
that prospective citizens might be deterred from 
moving into what was thus demonstrated to be a 
cold climate. On the policy of " business before 
pleasure " this attempt at cultivating American 
outdoor sports was throttled at its very beginning. 
Because of the varied weather conditions, perhaps 
it is impossible to have a national winter pastime 
that shall be truly representative, but we might 
utilize the colder season of the year for outdoor 
enjoyment more than we do. We have too largely 
confined ourselves to the summer time for our 
outdoor pastimes, and shut ourselves indoors in 
winter, to the physical, and sometimes moral 
detriment, of our people. We have dwelt upon 
the beauty of spring and summer and autumn, 
but have failed to see the beauty of winter, and 
its opportunities for genuine enjoyment. Winter, 



THE LUEE OF THE OUTDOOE LIFE 215 

after all, is our good friend, and we should have 
somewhat of the spirit toward it that James 
Eussell Lowell manifests in his essay on " A 
Good Word for "Winter : " 

" I think the old fellow has hitherto had scant 
justice done him in the main. We make him the 
symbol of old age or death, and think we have 
settled the matter. . . . For my own part, I 
think Winter a pretty wide-awake old boy, and 
his bluff sincerity and hearty ways are more con- 
genial to my mood, and are more wholesome to 
me, than any charms of which his rivals are 
capable." 

The changing seasons bring their varied de- 
lights, but whether in joyous or serious mood, 
the world affords the nature-lover 

e spin ua ^ wealth of unstinted pleasure and 

in nature ... 

an inspiration to high and holy 
thoughts. Even the bare trees and brown fields 
of autumn, the frosty mornings and the chilly 
nights, the wind and the storm, — all tell of a 
Power behind nature that holds the elements in his 
hand. ISTature's recreation, or rest, after the toil of 
a busy season of seed-time and harvest, speaks of 
a Eest beyond. Dr. Samuel C. Schmucker, in his 
work on nature study,' under the subject of " The 
Real Purpose of Nature Study," says : " God is 
now recognized in his universe as never before. 
, . . Now God is everywhere ; now God is in 

* Prof. Sarmiel C. Schmucker, The Study of Nature, p. 43. 



216 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

everything. Whatsoever things are beautiful, 
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are of good report, — these are all saturated with 
divinity. . . . God is no longer simply the 
ruler over the world ; God is everywhere in the 
world." 

*' Earth's crammed -with heaven 
And every common bush afire with God ; — 
£nt only he who knows takes off his shoes." 



CHAPTER XIY 

AMUSEMENTS AND THE MODEEN CHURCH 

An effective word picture of the relation of the 

Church to the recreational needs of men is drawn 

by Prof. Simon !N". Patten, of the 

"The dark side ^t • v -e t3 i • i tt 

of the street" University of Pennsylvania. He 

imagines himself as standing on a 
great thoroughfare of a large city in the evening 
hours and noting the difference between the two 
sides of the street. In the gloom of the dark side 
looms up the heavy bulk of the city library and 
the public school, and the church with its tower- 
ing spire. The light which shines from across 
the street is sufficient for him to read on the door 
of the library building a notice in brazen letters 
which says that " the library closes at 5 p. m. 
during July, August, and September, and is not 
open on Sundays, or on Saturday afternoons, or on 
holidays." On the gate of the iron fence around 
the high-school building a similar plate informs 
the public that the grounds and building are 
closed during the vacation months. Approaching 
the church he discovers that it also is enjoying a 

^ " Amusement as a Factor in Man's Spiritual Uplift," Cw- 
reni Literature, Aug., 1909, p. 185£E. 
217 



218 OHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

vacation period, a notice upon the bulletin-board 
announcing that there are no services held during 
the summer months. A faint light from a basement 
window, and the sound of a few voices raised in 
song, indicate that the Wednesday evening prayer- 
meeting is in session. A glance through the open 
window reveals a small attendance at the hour of 
devotion, and the spirit of the meeting affords little 
contrast to the gloom of the night without. 

Outside the church, near the entrance, reflect- 
ing dully the light from across the street, there is 
a bronze statue of heroic size which represents, 
according to the inscription, a minister who served 
the church through a long period of years, and 
whose stalwart character and mighty deeds are a 
hallowed recollection. Too often does the Church 
thus commemorate the past, while the present is 
left for other agencies to meet and master. 

And this would complete the picture of the 
dark side of the street but for one more building 
that might be overlooked because of its seeming 
unimportance. Almost under the eaves of the 
great church a small cobbler's shop stands, on 
which hangs a sign reading, " The Eight Shop 
on the Wrong Side of the Street." 

The light side of the street is also briefly de- 
scribed. Here are buildings gay with decorations, 
and brilliant with tastefully arranged electric 
lights. The doors are open, and the multitudes 
are patronizing the soda fountains, the restaurants, 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 219 

the nickel theaters, and other places of amuse- 
ment. The observer marks that by far the larger 
number of the crowd are young 

" The light side , j u-u v. i. 

„ people and children, who, at- 

of the street" r r » ,. , 

tracted by the scene of light and 
beauty, listen to the music from the various phono- 
graphs and pianos, and fill the openings of the 
places of pleasure. It is the light side of the 
street, and the multitudes throng there, while the 
darker side is left almost without a single traveler 
upon its shadowed pavements. 

The facetious sign on the cobbler's shop reminds 
the professor that the Church has too long been 

" The Riffht Shop on the Wrong; 
The darkened g.^^ ^^ ^^^ Street." With the 

Church opening up 

best message that man ever heard, 
and the best work that man ever did, to inspire 
its mind and heart and enlist its consecrated 
effort, the Church has long neglected a most effect- 
ive means for the reaching of the masses. But 
we may be encouraged that the dark side of the 
street is growing lighter. Together with the lit- 
erary and scholastic life, the religious life is awak- 
ening to the use of the normal means of approach 
to people through the avenue of amusement and 
recreation. The Church is no longer burning in- 
cense to an honorable past, but is living in the 
present. 

The recent history of church activities pre- 
sents numerous examples of the attempt to serve 



220 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

the needs of man's larger life. Through the efforts 

of a prominent magazine corporation in l^ew York 

City, a number of years ago one 

A free popular <• , i <• i • i i i i 

or the lashionabie churches on 

concert 

Fifth Avenue, — the Church of 
the Ascension, — was opened for a free popular 
concert, to which thousands of tenement-house 
people came to enjoy the best music which the 
city could furnish. The concert was the begin- 
ning of similar efforts to open up the darkened 
church and make it serve the larger needs of the 
masses. Through the efforts of the ten or twelve 
men and women composing the committee of ar- 
rangements, and the assistance of the manager of 
the Mills Hotel, the Salvation Army, the char- 
itable organizations, and similar agencies, tickets 
were got into the hands of the people. The music 
consisted of violin, vocal, and pipe-organ selections 
from the best composers, the choir and musicians 
freely giving their services for the great concert. 
The multitude which crowded the church was 
made up of the lame and the aiflicted, the poor 
and neglected classes, including men and women 
of all classes of tenement dwellers, both whites 
and negroes. Keligious preferences kept none 
away, for there were Protestants, Roman Cath- 
olics, and Jews. Large numbers of these had 
probably not been in church before. 'No religious 
service accompanied the concert, and from a di- 
rectly religious standpoint the effort might seem 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 221 

to have been a failure ; but the silent message of 
the church's service to humanity was akin to what 
it seems likely the Master himself would do under 
like conditions. 

That the Church is living nearer to the life of 

the people is evidenced by the large number 

of church buildings equipped with 

The new approach ^i . •,-,,• ^ j: . 

... the various mstitutional features 

to the spiritual 

which serve the physical as well 
as the spiritual needs of man. As Dr. George J. 
Fisher, International Secretary of the Physical 
Department of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, remarks, we have discovered that " an 
unfortunately large number of our population 
haven't the physical basis for being good." In 
union with the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion, the Church is seeking to reach through the 
physical side the spiritual man who dwells within. 
The provision of gymnasiums, swimming-pools, 
reading and game rooms, and various other phys- 
ical and recreational features, is the tangible evi- 
dence of the Church's serious attempt to meet the 
larger social requirements. The Memorial Baptist 
Church in New York City, erected to the memory 
of Adoniram Judson by his son, in addition to the 
many physical and social advantages offered, has, 
attached to the church, an apartment hotel. In 
the basement of the church, in Memorial Hall, is 
found a museum of curiosities from Burmah and 
many relics of the veteran missionary. A very 



222 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

unique distinction belongs to the new Hennepin 
Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Minne- 
apolis. When completed, the upper floor of this 
church will contain an art gallery, in which a 
wealthy member will deposit his personal collec- 
tion of valuable paintings, including some master- 
pieces of art. 

The Church, in its adoption of that worldly 

wisdom which is making for its better access 

to the people, has rearranged its 

Better adapted ^ -^ \ -r, j. 

, ., , architecture. Basement rooms are 

architecture 

planned and equipped to meet the 
need of the larger social service that has become 
incumbent upon it. The auditorium is now built 
in circular form with inclined floor, and often 
with separate chairs, and is largely an adaptation 
from theater structure. The spire in most cases 
has given place to a tower of more modest height, 
or is wanting entirely. A few churches, built in 
the downtown district, have associated with them 
large ofiice buildings. 

The manner in which the Church invites the 

public to its services has undergone a change. In 

many modern church buildings the 

bell does not find a place ; but 

advertising . , ■ -n 

from associations of sentnnent, if 
not from actual need, we may judge it will be a 
long time before the church-bell is displaced. 
Other churches of costly design have the appro- 
priate chimes instead of a single bell. But, — one 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 223 

bell or many, or none, — tke modern Church does 
not depend on any single means of drawing the 
people. By bulletin-board, by personal invita- 
tion, printed or written, and by announcement in 
the daily and weekly papers, the people are in- 
vited to come. At the moving-picture show, in 
smaller as well as in larger towns, there frequently 
appears among the business announcements on the 

screen the statement that " Rev. will preach 

at the Avenue Church on Sunday morning 

and evening. This is the Church that Makes You 
Feel at Home." Some churches, in common with 
the Memorial Baptist of New York, have a lighted 
cross surmounting their highest tower, as a re- 
minder of the beauty and power of the Church's 
conquering sign. 

In the opinion of the writer, these changes do not 

indicate in themselves a decadent religious spirit, 

nor a lessening of that true dignity 

that belongs to the g-ospel. They 

of approach ° or j 

would seem rather to declare that 
the Church is here to live among men and to serve 
them, as did the Master, in ways that shall be 
in harmony with the present age. The modern 
Church recognizes that its strongest appeal to a 
large part of the race is through the physical and 
social life. And this change of method is really a 
return to the method of the Master. His care for 
the physical life of men was very marked. Many 
of his choicest teachings were given around the 



224 CHARACTEE THEOUGH EECEBATION 

festal board ; and it was at a wedding-feast, — per- 
haps the most enjoyable social event of the 
Orientals, — that he first "manifested forth his 
glory " and " his disciples believed on him." His 
more frequent manner of sermonizing was the tell- 
ing of a story. And above all, his presence was so 
attractive, — doubtless because of a genial person- 
ality, — that the multitude loved to be with him, 
while children listened to him with open-eyed 
wonder and sang his praises in the streets. 

It seems a striking anomaly that the thirst for 

amusement and play should find no response on 

the part of the Church, when the 

An essential of the , . , « i . . . , , i , 

, obiect oi reliffion is not that man 

gospel message «' ° 

should live less, but more. The 
modern Church must find the means by which real 
pleasure of the sort that satisfies the natural crav- 
ing shall fit into the more abundant life of the 
gospel. The Church's natural means of approach, 
especially to the young life of the community, is 
through the pleasures which it offers to them. 
Even the small child will feel no incongruity in 
uniting the idea of religion and play. Prof. 
George Albert Coe says: "The opposition be- 
tween the play spirit and the religious spirit is not 
real, but fancied ; just as between play and school- 
ing in general. Through our ignorance we have 
put asunder that which God hath joined together. 
"We teach children to think of their most free and 
spontaneous activities, — their plays, — as having no 



AMUSEMEl^S AND THE CHUECH 225 

affinity for religion, and then we wonder why 
religion does not seem more attractive to them as 
they grow to maturity ! " 

The value of the appeal to the play spirit in 

reaching the things that lie behind and beyond was 

illustrated to the writer by an in- 

How one pastor ^ident wMch Came under his per- 

T63.clicd. ills 

, sonal observation. A pastor, who 

young people ^ ' 

found a small country parish, to 
which he had been called, without a young peo- 
ple's society, set about exploring the field. The 
church record showed not more than half a dozen 
members who were below the age of twenty, the 
workers in the church all being aged or past mid- 
dle life. A feud of long standing divided the 
neighborhood. The last young people's society 
had died six years before, and older members 
of the church prophesied failure in case another 
was organized. The attendance of young people 
at church, — especially of young men, — was almost 
nil, and the general prospect of ever bringing them 
together was discouraging. 

As a preliminary step the pastor and his wife 
sent out to seventy young people, — after some 
search for names, found to constitute the avail- 
able material for the proposed society, — written 
invitations to come and enjoy a social evening at 
the parsonage. It so happened that the gathering 
was set for an evening when a public dance, to 
which many of these young people would have gone. 



226 OHAEACTEE THROUGH EECEEATIOIif 

was also scheduled ; but the evening proved a social 
success in every vt^ay. It was soon followed by 
another, — for even Queen Esther did not prefer 
her request to Ahasuerus at the first feast, — and 
even then it seemed wise to postpone the formal 
object of the gathering. At a later social, how- 
ever, the subject of organization was brought up ; 
and the pastor, after making an explanation of the 
object of the society, — dwelling at some length on 
its recreational value, — found a hearty response on 
the part of the young people. They were nearly 
all " associate " members, for the " active " Chris- 
tians were few. The Sunday-night meetings of 
the society were places of free discussion of relig- 
ious subjects, eliciting some honest confessions of 
moral shortcomings upon the part of the young 
people. Their socials, held frequently at the vari- 
ous homes in the community and providing clean 
and elevating amusement, engendered such an im- 
proved social spirit that the public dances were un- 
able to get enough young people together to make 
it profitable to continue them. The good effect of 
the young people's society was almost immediately 
apparent in the large number of young people at 
the regular services and at Sunday-school, where 
their absence had been so marked before. The 
pastor was cheered at the next communion by the 
presence of a goodly number of the young men and 
women at the sacramental board. The organiza- 
tion, so auspiciously begun, has, during the years 



AMUSEMENTS AInTD THE CHUECH 227 

that have intervened since its inception, ministered 
to the social life of the young people of that 
neighborhood, and both in a religious and recrea- 
tional way has fully justified its existence. 

Of course it will not be understood that, in the 

plea for the play spirit as a valuable adjunct of 

religious life, the writer wishes 

Marked improve- ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ 

ment in church ^ . r. .^i • 

entertainments amusement as a part of a Chris- 
tian's pleasure-program. In previ- 
ous references to the attitude of the Church on 
the amusement question, it has been made plain 
that certain pleasures are no doubt detrimental. 
While the prohibitory enactments and advices 
given regarding certain forms of amusement have 
been poorly received, it is doubtless true that all 
such have had a restrictive and reformatory effect 
on amusements both within and without the circle 
of the Church's activities. "Within the memory of 
many of the readers of these lines there has been 
a decided change for the better in the entertain- 
ments given under the auspices of the Church. A 
generation ago certain gambling features were 
often prominent, such as the "ring-cake," "the 
fish-pond," " the grab-bag " ; or possibly an elab- 
orate pincushion or bedquilt was sold through a 
piously conducted ralfle. Then, too, the " most 
popular young lady" and the " ugliest man " vied 
with each other as a means of extracting the cash 
from unwilling pocketbooks. These features, to- 



228 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

gether with all forms of church gambling, have 
been practically abolished, either through the 
drastic laws enacted against games of chance, or 
the awakened conscience of the Church at large. 

At the same time it must be admitted that a 

more lenient attitude prevails concerning some of 

the things that were once dis- 

ew attitude couraged and legislated against 

toward dramatic , .i mi ■ 

1 by church councils. The element 

of dramatic play, represented by 
the theater, has now in some degree entered into 
many of the church entertainments, while the 
various denominational colleges present at com- 
mencement time their " class plays " without 
apology to church authority. "Without interpret- 
ing these things as a sweeping endorsement of the 
theater as an institution, we may believe that they 
indicate an unqualified endorsement of the dra- 
matic element as a legitimate function of life. 
And it is possible that among individual Chris- 
tians, even in churches nominally opposed to the 
theater, the policy of careful selection of the kind 
of play attended more generally prevails than the 
complete abstinence from this form of amusement. 
The Church itself, as every reader of history 
knows, once made large use of the drama. The 
religious dramas of medieval times, and the 
morality and miracle plays of the later Middle 
Ages, disappeared under the just criticisms of 
their crude form and lack of dramatic merit. 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUEOH 229 

Authorities, both civil and religious, have quite 
generally prohibited the presentation of Biblical 
scenes upon the stage. Even the 
Passion Play of Ober-Ammergau, 
a popular reminder of the former 
prominence of religious dramatics, has not had an 
undisturbed career in this particular. Permission 
to give it must each time be obtained from the 
King of Bavaria, which permission, however, has 
thus far regularly been given. The religious 
fervor of the actors in this play and its devout 
presentation are vouched for by many authorities. 
A competent critic says : " The play as now pre- 
sented is exceedingly impressive and reverent; 
each actor is chosen in conformity with his char- 
acter, and is schooled by both tradition and 
practice." 

An interesting attempt to present something 
similar to the Passion Play is reported from 
Pomfret, Conn., in the staging 
of the Nativit ^^ ^ pantomime of the Nativity. 
Through the medium of Country 
Life in America we learn that the pantomime 
was conducted at Christmas time by the Neigh- 
borhood Association, which comprises in its mem- 
bership Congregationalists, Episcopalians and Ro- 
man Catholics. Those in the community are of 
various nationalities and therefore of varied faiths, 
and all of them are working people. Under such 
conditions, the effort was undertaken with some 



230 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEBATION 

trepidation. But the plan was elaborately and 
successfully carried out; and the words of the 
correspondent reveal the use that was made of 
the varied talent afforded : " Our shepherds were 
boys from the farms ; our angelic hosts were made 
up of girls in their teens ; our Magi were, one a 
Frenchman, one a Moor, and one a native of I^ew 
England stock ; by trade they were a plumber, a 
day laborer, and the village storekeeper and post- 
master ; the retinues of the Magi were schoolboys ; 
Joseph was an Italian laborer ; Mary a young 
Irish girl," 

The effect of the presentation upon the players 
was the production of a devoutness of spirit that 
accorded with the serious scenes depicted ; while 
of the audience the writer says : " When the 
curtain fell upon the last scene of the little drama, 
there was a silence, — a silence of deep emotion." 
The entertainment closed with the sweet strains 
of the melody, " Silent Night," and the spell of a 
holy awe rested upon the people as they went 
forth into the darkness. 

In view of such production of a religious effect 
through the use of the dramatic, it would seem a 
perversion of the Church's best 
S^chrtmir^ opportunity for the teaching of 
enterta"nZnt religious truth to a multitude who 
do not enter its doors except at 
the festal season, to make the Christmas enter- 
tainment a time for the display of Santa Claus, 



AMUSEMENTS AWD THE CHUECH 231 

or Mrs. Santa Claus, or the pixies, fairies, and 
brownies that often fill our programs at such 
times. The entertaining element is not sacrificed 
by the presentation of a dignified cantata of a 
scriptural character, with appropriate music, while 
the Church is truer to its mission in such a pre- 
sentation than in a program whose spirit better 
befits a secular organization. 

As an instance of the profitable use of the 
dramatic in the presentation of missionary sub- 
jects the recent play pageant, 
A missionary ,, ^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ Boston " may be 

pageant •' 

mentioned. The idea of the pag- 
eant was an importation from England, where 
several years ago " The Orient in London " was 
presented. The play was staged in the large 
Mechanics' Hall, and for several months previous 
over fifteen hundred men, women, and children 
were studying and rehearsing the various parts. 
These included an immense chorus of singers, 
several hundred " stewards," and a large number 
of ushers. Under the direction of Kev. A. M. 
Gardner, who had charge of " The Orient in Lon- 
don," the material which had been gathered by 
correspondence with the missionaries concerning 
everyday life and occupations in their various 
countries, was reduced to concrete realities ; and 
by the construction of special scenery and various 
objects, the life of the Oriental peoples was ex- 
hibited, the trained performers taking the parts 



232 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

assigned them by the director. The assistance of 
missionaries at home on furlough was also en- 
listed. 

Some idea of the exhibition may be gathered 
from the words of an editorial writer in The Out- 
look : " Ten feet or so away from 

Features 

an Indian idol an African mis- 
presented 

sionary has gathered a constantly 
changing group about him to whom he is hand- 
ing out a leaflet containing missionary songs. 
. . . A little beyond is a Chinese school, where 
a Chinese teacher is teaching Chinese children to 
write the Chinese characters ; and on the other 
side of the partition is a Christian school with a 
scenic representation of the only public library in 
all China. ... A sound of song attracts us. 
A few rods away a group of Fisk University 
singers are rendering some negro melodies (these 
are real negro singers), and around the corner are 
specimens of the industrial work carried on by 
the American Missionarj^- Association in the South. 
. . . Children's voices ! We follow the sound, 
to find a group of a dozen children in Japanese 
costume attending a Christian kindergarten in a 
Japanese schoolroom under 'The Lady of the 
Decoration.' . . . Out-of-doors is a missionary 
car, used in home mission work in the West, 
with pews in it to seat a hundred, and the most 
cunningly contrived bedroom, study, kitchen, and 
dining-room all in one, for the missionary and his 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 233 

wife ; and the missionary is there to tell you all 
about it." 

Special afternoon and evening entertainments 
are also provided. In the evening at eight o'clock 
a judicial trial of a Chinaman takes place in the 
market-place by the pagoda in the Chinese quar- 
ter. His conviction is sure ; but sentence, either 
by beheading or by bastinado, is not carried out, 
a steward explaining instead what the sentence 
would be. Each scene of the great pageant, 
which begins at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
is preceded by a short interpretation by some 
clergyman. 

"The first episode," says Tlie Outlook^ "por- 
trays an Indian encampment. An attempted 
massacre of Eskimos by Indians is 
piso es interrupted by the timely arrival 

described r j j 

of a missionary, who brings to the 
chieftain and his wife their child who has been 
lost in the forest. The second episode presents 
the meeting between Livingstone and Stanley in 
Africa, where Livingstone stifles his home-yearn- 
ings and refuses to return with Stanley because 
his work is not yet done. The third episode repre- 
sents the preparations for the burning of a widow 
on the funeral pyre of her husband in India. The 
preparations are all completed, and the torch is 
about to be applied, when a government official 
comes in with a troop of soldiers and declares 
that suttee is abolished. The fourth episode takes 



234 CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

us to Hawaii, where two victims are about to be 
offered to the irate goddess Pele, when Queen 
Kapiolani interferes, defies the goddess, eats the 
sacred berries, and throws the priest's staff into 
the crater of the volcano. In the finale, the whole 
company assembles on the stage, swelled by the 
members of the chorus, who join in singing : 

" ' In Christ there is no East nor West, 
In him no South nor North ; 
But one great fellowship of love, 
Throughout the great wide earth. ' 

" At the close of this chorus a dimly perceived 
cross upon a great rock in the center of the stage 
grows gradually luminous, the orchestra strikes 
the opening notes of ' Old Hundredth,' and the 
congregation rises and joins with the company on 
the stage in singing the Doxology." 



CHAPTEE XV 

AMUSEMENTS AKD THE MODEEN CHUECH 

(continued) 

In recent years a new reason for the Church's 
interest in the matter of public diversion has de- 
veloped ; for the various amuse- 

Our Sunday , . , i > - 1 

. ,.' ment agencies have placed them- 

now a holiday o ^ 

selves in sharp competition with 
the Church. The inroads upon the Christian Sab- 
bath, and the claims upon the physical energy and 
jSnancial resources of the people, make the popular 
amusements of the day real rivals in the demand 
for that public attention and interest which are 
the foundation of the Church's success. The first 
day of the week was once exclusively the Church's 
day. On this day it rendered its largest and most 
widespread service to the public. Church attend- 
ance was well-nigh universal, especially in the 
early days of our country's settlement. For a 
long period Sunday theaters and Sunday sports 
of any kind were unknown. Now, the Sunday 
theater entertains large crowds, while the pleas- 
ure park and ball game and other Sunday sports 
count their adherents by the thousands. In 
largely increasing areas, in both city and country, 
Sunday is now a holiday, with all its accompani- 
235 



236 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

ment of sport and noise, and the old-time Sabbath 
is but a memory. 

That this new invasion of the Sabbath is a 
source of regret to multitudes of the best people 
is evidenced by the sentiments expressed from the 
pulpit and through the religious press, as well as 
by many an individual. A relative of the writer, 
a daughter of an old ISTew England family, now 
grown to elderly womanhood, in a recent letter 
from her country home in Connecticut, echoes 
this regret : " Our good old IS'ew England Sab- 
baths are fast passing away. The trolley-car 
passing our door every twenty minutes loaded 
with people going somewhere ; automobiles by 
the hundreds rushing by ; young men going to 
play ball on the Sabbath Day ! What would our 
grandparents have thought of it all ? Surely these 
modern days are very different from the days of 
my girlhood." Speaking of the decline in church 
attendance, she says : " It is most discouraging for 
our pastors to see so many empty pews. Thei'e 
seem to be no young men in the churches to 
speak of." 

"While this view may be said to reflect only 
local conditions in a small country community, a 
wider view does not seem so reassuring as one 
might wish. The Sunday game or pleasure resort 
draws its thousands while the church service in 
the same communities has but its handfuls, — espe- 
cially during the summer season. 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 237 

The problem of Sunday sports is one that can- 
not be lightly regarded. Claiming to be a means 
of mental and physical relaxation 
Sunday sports ^^^ those overworked by week-day 

that harm , m i - i <• -i ^ i -i i 

mind and body ^^^^^ ^^^J ^^^ "^^^J ^^^^ ^O build Up 

the one indulging in them, but 
really destroy the better elements of character. 
Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts says : " Not only do Sunday 
work and sport fail to give new strength, but 
they plant a poison microbe or germ of weak- 
ness in whatever they touch. If the steel engine 
works daily, it soon breaks down because of this 
weakness ; so do muscle, nerve and brain, and 
still more, character, in which the microbe of 
Sunday sport is far more deadly than that of 
Sunday work." Many legal authorities testify 
in harmony with Blackstone, that " corruption of 
morals usually follows Sabbath desecration." 
Testimony from the courts of justice and charity 
authorities is similar to that given by Mrs. Julia 
Kurtz of the Milwaukee Martha Washington 
Home, who, after eighteen years of work with 
wayward girls, says, "Fifty per cent, of these 
girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen 
were led into wrong-doing through the lack of 
restraint from Sunday sports." ' 

The plea for Sunday amusement is usually 
grounded on the right of the people, — especially 

^ Lord's Day Papers, April, 1914, J. B. Davidson, publisher, 
Milwaukee, Wis. 



238 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

the laboring classes, — to the recreation which the 
freedom of the day offers. But a consideration of 
the physical needs of man alone proves that either 
labor or sport is detrimental in the wasting of that 
energy which is needed for Monday's labor. It is 
a matter capable of scientific demonstration that 
the demands upon physical energy are such that 
the rest given in sleep does not entirely repair the 
waste of the human body, and that there is needed 
that added rest which comes from change of 
thought and action in the proper observance of 
the Sabbath. The dissipations of Sunday amuse- 
ment are a poor fitting for the next day's toil. 
Col. Franklin Fairbanks, the great scale manu- 
facturer, said, " I can tell by watching the men at 
work on Monday which spent the Sabbath in 
sport and which at home, church or Sabbath- 
school. The latter do more and better work." 

Those who believe that a larger liberty would 

be the heritage of men with the coming of a 

looser administration of Sunday 

Sunday sport laws, or their entire abolition, 

means i i i n 

Sunday labor should note the Statement or 
Hallam, the historian, who thus 
philosophizes : " The Christian Sabbath is the 
holy day of freedom ; but the Sunday holiday is 
the ally of despotism. It is the bauble which the 
tyrants of Europe threw to their subjects to keep 
them quiet under their tyranny." Sunday sport 
and Sunday labor always accompany each other, 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 239 

for in order that others may enjoy themselves the 
servants of the public must work. The prevalence 
of Sunday amusements will mean even the loss of 
what rest the Sabbath now affords to a part of our 
laboring population. As Dr. Crafts says, " His- 
tory proves that where Sunday sport is for a long 
time general nearly all workmen have to work 
every day." 

Because of the advantage to society of one day 
devoted to the recuperation of mental and physical 
energy, laws are on the statute- 
Attempt to ijQ^i^g Qf g^jj Q^ states,— with the 

abolish Sunday . , .. j. /-. tj? 

. smgle exception of California, — 

against common labor and sport 
upon the first day of the week. Within recent 
years, however, it has seemed as though a con- 
certed attempt for the overthrow of these laws and 
the substitution of legislation permitting certain 
forms of amusement, — especially baseball and 
other outdoor sports, — has been made. The pleas 
offered seem somewhat plausible, — the fact that 
Sunday laws are already much disregarded ; the 
" peril " of laws that look like a union of Church 
and State; the multitudes who can see a game 
only on Sunday ; the limiting of the games to cer- 
tain hours when church services are not ordinarily 
held ; and the statement that men have outgrown 
the more Puritanical regard for the Sabbath. 
With these specious pleas, many have allowed 
themselves to be deceived into the indorsement of 



240 OHARAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

Sunday baseball. In some states strong pressure 
has been brought to bear upon the legislatures for 
the enactment of more liberal legislation. The 
Nebraska legislature, at a recent session, passed an 
act permitting Sunday baseball and other sports 
in communities voting favorably under a referen- 
dum, thus suspending in those localities the other- 
wise prohibitory law against Sunday amusements. 
That the Sunday game is desired by its strongest 
advocates chiefly for commercial purposes would 
seem to be indicated by the fact that, when the 
Sullivan bill for the legalizing of Sunday baseball 
was up for consideration in the 'New York legisla- 
ture, an oifered amendment which prohibited the 
charging of an admission fee at the games was 
promptly voted down ! 

How to meet the attack of organized Sunday 
sport upon the Church, and save for the better- 
ment of men the Sabbath with all 
Some correct- j^g refining and Christianizing in- 

ive measures „ . , j. £ j.i 

fluences, is a large part oi the 

suggested ' ^i i 

problem of the modern Church. 
Various cures for the inroads of the Sunday 
amusement features upon the Church have been 
proposed. The preaching of a sermon to the as- 
sembled crowd at a Sunday game before the play- 
ing began has been the cause of much comment 
and criticism. And it is doubtful if the result of 
the attempt proved as effectual as its promoters 
expected. The sermon in a favorable atmosphere, 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 241 

carefully prepared by prayer and song, often pro- 
duces little result, and with minds surcharged 
with other thoughts it is quite probable that the 
good seed was soon choked by the thorns and 
briars of secularity and sin. 

As an offset to the sports and pleasures that are 
more damaging, it has been suggested that the art 
galleries, museums, libraries, and parks should all 
be opened on Sunday. In most of our large cities 
this is probably now the case, and possibly some 
who could not be induced to enjoy a more orthodox 
observance of the Sabbath are by this means re- 
strained from more dissipating indulgences. A 
measure of relief seems to be afforded from the 
temptation to the misuse of the Sabbath by the 
introduction of a Saturday half-holiday. The 
Federation of Sunday Rest Associations, the Pres- 
byterian Church, and other churches, in their 
state and national councils, have adopted resolu- 
tions in favor of the Saturday half-holiday for 
factory and shop employees. 

Legislation has afforded some help in the saving 
of the multitude from the excesses of Sunday dis- 
sipation. Sunday laws have exer- 

, . , ,. cised a restraining influence, and 

legislation o ' 

their value is endorsed even by 
many who do not affiliate with the Church. An 
officer in a certain city, when pressed by the re- 
form forces to close the Sunday theaters and pic- 
ture-shows, said, " I am glad that I can stop them ; 



242 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

for I have seen our youth going so wild after them 
every day that they are falling behind in school 
and going to the bad. Stopping them one day 
each week may help save them from ruin." 

We may be thankful that there are many 
identified with the amusement life who have re- 
gard for the Sabbath. Instances 

Public entertainers ^^^^ ^^^^ ^-^^^ ^f ^^^^^^ whohave 

.u o u^ ^-u declared themselves in favor of the 

the Sabbath 

closing of Sunday theaters, and 
have made strong appeals to the public that the 
places of amusement be closed that they might 
have the needed rest of the Sabbath. Christian 
people can bat wish that the spirit of all those who 
engage in the entertainment business might be 
that of Jenny Lind, who, when requested person- 
ally by the Swedish king to sing on Sunday at a 
great festival in Stockholm, said, " There is a higher 
King, sire, to whom I owe my first allegiance," 
and refused to be present. A similar regard for 
the Christian Sabbath has characterized the Wright 
brothers, who refused to enter airship races, or to 
exhibit their flights, on Sunday. When Wilbur 
Wright was watching another aviator to see that 
he did not infringe on their patents, he did not at- 
tend his exhibitions on Sunday, because, we are 
told, he " had scruples against shows or anything 
of the kind on the Lord's Day." 

The efforts of the Church toward the elimination 
of Sunday amusements, and the strong competi- 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 243 

tion of these sjDorts for the attendance of the masses, 

has influenced in part the character of the service 

which the modern Church is ren- 

The changed ^^^^ ^^ ^-^^ general public. 

character of a ■ -, ^ ji • 

, , . Aside irom the agencies apart 

church services o r 

from the Sabbath activities of the 
Church, — vsrhich have been noted in the previous 
chapter, — the character of the religious services 
has been greatly changed. "Where once the 
Church could depend upon a long cultivated 
habit or upon devotional interest for the attend- 
ance of the public at the Sunday services of the 
church, now it is making use of the features of en- 
tertainment as an attraction to the house of wor- 
ship. While the writer is not prepared to indorse 
every attempt to provide a church service of a 
more entertaining character, he desires to call at- 
tention to the fact that such attempts are a rec- 
ognition of the value of amusement and recrea- 
tion in the building of character. 

The Sunday-school, in its outreach for the 
youth, has adopted newer features not only in its 

week-day activities but in its reg- 
, " ^" ular session. The kindergarten 

school plans . '^ 

methods employed with Begin- 
ners are but an adaptation of the play element to 
the service of religion. The use of the picture 
and the story in the planting of religious teach- 
ings in the child mind is now an indispensable 
part of Primary teaching. 



244 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

But it is more especially in the regular service 

of the church that these entertaining features have 

been introduced. One cannot help 

Popularizing the .• j_t . j^i 

. . . noting that, anione; the more pro- 

preaching service o ? o r ^ 

gressive churches at least, there is 
present in the preaching services a decided note 
of entertainment. Sermons are announced under 
attractive titles. They are shorter as well, and 
couched in language less theological, and often 
deal with subjects of more or less popular interest. 
More illustrations from the common life of the 
people find their way into the sermon than in a 
former day. The music of the church is also the 
subject of careful thought. The artistic as well 
as the devotional element has a part in the selec- 
tions rendered. The church does not hesitate to 
spend large sums of money to have the best vocal 
and instrumental music. Mr. John C. Freund, 
a New York musical editor, makes the statement 
that the churches of this country now spend 
$55,000,000 a year for music. 

The Sunday evening service of the church has 
undergone even more of a change than the morn- 
ing worship. In many instances the sermon has 
well-nigh disappeared. Popular lectures on re- 
ligious and moral themes, the sermon-lecture, — 
often illustrated by paintings, stereopticon pic- 
tures, or even motion-picture films, — or perhaps 
the sacred concert, occupy the preaching hour. 
In some of the city churches the experiment has 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 245 

been tried of substituting an afternoon musical 
service, or an evening vesper service with liberal 
musical features, for the regular evening service. 
Some ministers in the attempt to reach the masses 
have epitomized various novels and by impersona- 
tion and narrative delivery have sought to convey 
religious lessons to their hearers. One, at least, 
made somewhat of a success of the presentation 
of an original serial story, a chapter at a time, to 
his congregation on Sunday evenings. If the ef- 
fect on his congregation was similar to the inter- 
est awakened by the publication of In His Steps, 
we may believe that Dr. Charles M. Sheldon 
must have moved many of his hearers to higher 
religious ideals. 

These references to the changes which are en- 
tering into our church services, and the suggestion 
of the desirability of new methods. 
The Church ^^^ ^^^ presented with the desire 

a ap ing i se ^^ ^^^^ reflections on the earlier 

to the age 

methods of the Church. The 
sterner religious life of our fathers and their 
manner of preaching are not for our rebuke. 
They adapted themselves to their age, and served 
the needs of the people of their time, and right 
nobly did they perform their work. ISTor would 
this writer assert that the only avenue to the 
human mind for the introduction of spiritual 
truth is entertainment and play. But he would 
plead that as our fathers served their day so we 



246 CHAEACTEE THROUGH EECEEATIOK 

must serve ours, and if picture, or song, or story 
shall help the Church to win men to its high 
standard of faith and service, then let them be 
used wisely and well. 

The depopulated churches of our cities, — where 

on Sunday evenings, as the little girl said, the 

preacher " talks to himself out of 

How one New ^ piece of paper," — may learn a 

,, , lesson from the ]^ew York City 

the people -^ 

preacher who introduced unique 
and entertaining features into his Sunday night 
service and kept his church filled each week with 
eager listeners. Fifteen hundred people at a 
Sunday evening service, when other churches are 
mostly empty, indicates that Dr. Christian F. 
Reisner, of Grace M. E. Church, has mastered 
the art of getting a crowd. Sometimes it is a 
" Flower Service," at which each attendant is 
presented with a carnation or a rose. On a hot 
Sunday night the subject is " Keep Cool," with a 
great block of ice or pile of snow set in plain 
sight of the congregation. Musical features of 
the most varied character are employed as well. 
Various musical companies entertaining in the 
city are pressed in for this service. A description 
of a Sunday night service at Grace Church by an 
attendant tells how, after the rousing opening 
song, and prayer, a quartet of jubilee singers ap- 
peared and entertained the congregation with 
their songs. An appropriate reading by a tal- 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 247 

ented impersonator followed. The sermon was 
preached, — short and to the point, — but filled with 
the meat of the gospel. At the close an invita- 
tion to accept the Christ of sinners was presented, 
and several committed themselves publicly to the 
new life. 

Of course the pastor has exposed himself to the 
criticism of introducing vaudeville into the pulpit, 
and at first the new methods were looked upon with 
suspicion even by his friends. When the pastor 
announced his plans, on coming to Grace Church 
from a successful pastorate in Denver where simi- 
lar features were used, one of the leading mem- 
bers, as he afterward said, "felt an inward 
repugnance to the plan." He held his peace, 
however, and after a trial of the new program of 
activities, revealed his feelings concerning the 
matter in the following speech to an interested 
investigator: "The Avhole scheme was at first 
abhorrent to me. It shocked my sense of dignity 
and reverence to see the free and easy manner in 
which the Sunday evening service was conducted. 
But I had it out with myself, and decided that I 
would withhold judgment, even from my asso- 
ciates on the official board, until these new and 
unusual plans could be tried. To-day the last 
particle of desire for criticism on my part has 
disappeared. He can do anything he wants to 
do, and I will back him up in it ; for he has solved 
the crushing problems of our church." 



248 OHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

The entertaining features of Dr. Eeisner's Sun- 
day night service are of course backed up by the 
most faithful and persistent personal work on the 
part of the pastor and his people, but the founda- 
tion of his method is the attraction and novelty of 
the recreational and entertainment features em- 
ployed. And the reports of those who have good 
opportunity to know are that the church is prosper- 
ing financially, numerically, and spiritually under 
the new method. It is indeed a present-day ap- 
plication of the words of the Apostle, " I am be- 
come all things to all men, that I may by all 
means save some," 

As a means of popularizing the Sunday night 

service and drawing crowds to special services, 

there has been wide advocacy of 

The 11S6 of 

the use of moving-pictures and 

motion-pictures ° ^ 

stereopticon views. In the spring 
of 1910, Eev. Herbert A. Jump, then pastor of 
the South Congregational Church of New Britain, 
Conn., after considerable investigation of the prac- 
ticability of the scheme, made partial arrange- 
ments for the introduction of picture films as a 
feature of his Sunday night services. It was felt 
by Mr. Jump that in a city of 15,000 wage-earners, 
largely of foreign birth, such a service would 
prove an irresistible attraction and accomplish 
much good. After careful consideration, how- 
ever, the standing committee of the church decided 
that the plan was impractical, so it was given up. 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 249 

Out of his investigations the pastor prepared a 
monograph on The Religious Possibilities of the 
Motion-Picture^ as an aid to those who might 
think of taking up the work as he had wished. 
The suggested uses of the motion-picture by the 
church as indicated by this booklet are : Firsts as 
a mere entertainment device ; second^ in impart- 
ing knowledge of Bible incidents and scenes to 
the young people of the Sunday-school ; third^ for 
the awakening of missionary interest ; fourth^ as 
an education in social subjects, assisting the fight 
against disease and encouraging better sanitary 
and housing conditions ; fifth^ the motion-picture 
sermon — the crowning possibility of the new in- 
vention. 

An inquiry from the writer, directed to the 

National Board of Censorship, concerning the use 

of the motion-picture by churches 

New plans for j t • • ^- i • 

... c, and religious organizations, brmgs 

religious films o o ' o 

out the fact that there is very little 
organized work of this kind. The companies 
manufacturing the films have not particularly 
interested themselves in the making of religious 
films because the demand upon the part of the 
churches has been small and the use of the films 
too irregular to make it profitable to cater to the 
demand. Companies, however, are now being 
formed for the circulation of this class of films. 
A religious newspaper brings the recent informa- 
tion that, under the management of Dr. Charles 



250 CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

Stelzle, four hundred churches in as many cities 
in the United States are soon to be supplied with 
films each week. There are to be sixty centers 
with a motion-picture machine and operator for 
each center. The operator, with his machine and 
films, is to travel over the territory on the circuit 
plan, covering not only Sunday nights, but week- 
day nights as well. This plan does not provide 
for the occasional use of picture-films, as the serv- 
ice will be regular, and is adapted only to the 
larger places. It is possible, however, that in the 
future some plan may be worked out that shall 
give opportunity for its extension, along more 
flexible lines, to the smaller towns. 

Mr. Orrin G. Cocks, Advisory Secretary of the 
National Board of Censorship, in a recent personal 
letter to the writer concerning the religious use 
of picture films, says : " We see the importance of 
this line of work and have helped in conspicuous 
ways to advance the idea of separating from regu- 
lar commercial service high-grade films for such 
educational and religious use. It is surely coming. 
A large amount of capital, however, will be neces- 
sary to make it a success. Another indispensable 
element is a willingness on the part of the re- 
ligious public to support those organizations 
which display the films. . . . Churches, etc., 
must be willing to make the initial investment 
and to pay for films in a business-like sort of 
way." 



AMUSEMEN^TS AND THE CHUECH 251 

Objections have of course been numerous to the 

use of either moving-picture machine or stereopti- 

con in attracting people to church 

Objections . 

.J , services, ihey are by many ta- 

considered •' -^ '' 

booed as secular and worldly, and 
many are prone to agree with the statement of a 
pastor in a state gathering of ministers and lay- 
men, " Give the people something good, something 
they need, and they will come." Others are pro- 
nounced in their opposition and say as did a cer- 
tain layman, '' I'll not go inside a church that uses 
such instruments ! " Some have an ill-defined 
aversion which they cannot quite explain. They 
feel like the very devout Christian lady who said 
to the writer, in a revival service where he was 
using the stereopticon, " Some way, when the 
lights go out it sends a shiver all down my back." 
The sensationalism of the method has been con- 
demned ; but the attraction of certain so-called 
sensational methods cannot be denied, and the ob- 
jectors may, if they look back over the years, dis- 
cern that similar objections were also registered 
against the larger part, if not nearly all, of the 
common institutions of the Church, when they 
were first adopted. 

The great revival campaigns of recent years 
have had as their basis the use of methods new 
and peculiar, in which the entertainment feature 
finds a considerable part. The great evangelistic 
awakening in Seattle in the spring of 1918 is a 



252 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

notable example. Among the unusual things, of 
the sort that appealed to the love of entertain- 
ment, was the setting off each 

Unique revival . -^ «, . , , - 

y- ^ evemns:, niteen mmutes before 

methods °' 

the service, of a display of fire- 
works. The street meeting, held before the even- 
ing service in the auditorium, was accompanied 
by brass-band music and a display of stereopticon 
pictures, after which the men's parade formed, 
headed by the band, and marched to the place of 
meeting, singing, " Onward, Christian Soldiers." 
The success of the meetings was phenomenal, and 
the methods used were probably in large degree 
responsible for the favorable outcome. 

The stereopticon, as a means of impressing re- 
ligious truth, has been so long before the public 

that it needs no argument to prove 
'^TtT^T^°'' to those who have witnessed its 
services ^^^^ ^^® ^^ ^^^^ work that it is an 

effective means of preaching the 
gospel. Having seen such use of pictures at a re- 
vival series, held during college days in the old uni- 
versity chapel twenty years ago, the writer early 
incorporated the stereopticon as an adjunct to the 
revival service. For more than ten years past, in 
his own church and in others where he has been 
called to help in special services, the lantern has 
been used to picture the gospel in story form. 
The usual plan has been to open the service with 
pictures and songs from the screen, sometimes 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 253 

using a series of pictures illustrating an appro- 
priate solo Avhile the song was being rendered 
with piano or organ accompaniment ; the pre- 
sentation of parables, Scripture scenes, paintings 
of the masters, allegorical and religious stories, 
has filled a half -hour with intense spiritual inter- 
est. After the lights were turned on, the service 
proceeded with the usual sermon and personal 
appeal. The quietness and semi-darkness of the 
room, with the changing pictures and the earnest 
words of the speaker who describes them, have 
been found to produce a psychological effect 
which an address with the lights turned on does 
not accomplish. After an experience of many 
weeks of services of this character, he can say 
that the darkness of the room has never led to 
disorder or misbehavior on the part of the 
thoughtless. The stereopticon has proved a con- 
stant attraction, bringing a crowd on even the 
most unfavorable nights. The spiritual results 
have fully justified the method. 

One incident of a spiritual transformation which 

seems to have been a direct result of the picture- 

ffospel of the lantern, may be men- 

The story of a ^- j -n ^ t r^ 

^,. , tioned. r or some time Joe Gay, 

Chinese boy -^ ' 

a Chinese boy, had been in my 
Sunday-school class of young men. Though 
somewhat younger in years than the other mem- 
bers, Joe was adopted by the older fellows, who 
took a great interest in him. He was silent and 



254 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

civil and the attraction of his personality made 
him a favorite with us all. He had not seemed 
to grasp much of the story of the gospel as it was 
talked over in the class ; but during the time of 
our special services he was an interested listener 
and observer as well. Each night the pictures 
came on the screen : — Jesus by the seaside, on 
the mountainside, healing the sick, blessing the 
children ; Hoffman's " Christ and the Rich Young 
Euler," and " Christ in Gethsemane ; " the song, 
" There is a Fountain Filled with Blood," accom- 
panied by a picture of the three crosses on Cal- 
vary's hill; as well as numerous other pictures 
and songs that bore the tidings of " the sweetest 
story ever told." It was all plain now, and the 
heart of the Chinese boy responded to the new 
gospel of the pictures. The writer will long re- 
member the scene of the communion morning 
when Joe knelt to receive the elements of the 
broken body and shed blood. The others had all 
gone from the communion-rail, and the minister 
appealed to any who might wish for the first time 
to come and acknowledge their Lord. Joe came 
alone, and after the communion, the minister who 
presided at that feast laid his hands in blessing 
on the head of the boy and prayed that he might 
some time go back to his own people, bearing the 
message of truth. 

Among the treasures of that pastorate, the 
writer holds a letter froni Joe Gay, which, among 



AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHUECH 255 

its respectful and well-chosen utterances, has a 
sentence expressing his thanks to his teacher and 
pastor and saying, " I am glad that you taught 
me about Christ." 



CHAPTER XYI 

THE JOYS OF HOME 

Time was when humanity's inherent desire for 

pleasure was satisfied with the simpler sports 

which home life furnished. Later, 

Home, the center ^^ ^^^ strain of living became more 

of a man's . , , i i-n 

, . evident and lite ffrew more com- 

happmess o 

plex, man began to go farther 
afield for his pleasures. Like the old Arab, of 
whom Dr. Conwell tells us in his celebrated 
lecture, he sought his " acres of diamonds " afar 
from his own door. Amusement became a com- 
mercialized thing, and the world at large fur- 
nished his good times, while the happiness of his 
home life was only a very incidental feature. It 
is probable, under present social conditions at least, 
that our people will never again center their 
amusement life in the home as they did in the 
yesterdays ; but the fact remains that the pleasures 
of home are worthy of more consideration on the 
part of one who would seek real enjoyment in life. 
The home, which is the first, and under proper 
conditions the best, school of character, furnishes 
a fine field for the cultivation of the highest joys. 
It will yet be found that the highest happiness is 
256 



THE JOYS OF HOME 257 

not in some far field, but is within reach of the 
poorest individual who is rich enough to have a 
home. 

The fact confronts the student of social prob- 
lems that many are denied the pleasures of home 
because thej have no home in 

Modern home -i • t ± jy i .i • • • 

,.^ ^ ,. . which to find their enioyment. 

life declining «• '' 

The conditions of the American 
city to-day reveal the fact that home life is on the 
decline. At both ends of society there are forces 
operating to destroy the home. The rich are 
threatened with the loss of home through their 
abundance of houses ; — a mansion in the city, a 
cottage by the sea, a bungalow in the wilderness, 
each as temporary dwellings for a fragment of the 
year. Those at the other extreme of society are 
engulfed in the sea of humanity that struggles for 
existence in the tenement-houses of the old type 
Even the middle class, like the rich, have their 
club life and their hotels and boarding-houses, so 
that large numbers of human beings between the 
upper and lower strata of society do not know the 
real delights of home. The hours of both the 
business man and the wage-earner are such that 
during the week he has little time to spend with 
his family, and if he is one of the many who labor 
for seven days in the week, home becomes to him 
merely the place in which to eat and sleep. Such 
conditions make the story of a little girl's igno- 
rance of her own father's existence seem not so 



258 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

much of an exaggeration after all. Seeing her 
father only at the evening meal,— the child al- 
ways being asleep when he went to his work in 
the morning, — she is reported to have said, 
" Mamma, who is that man that takes his supper 
at our house ? " 

The country as weU as the city furnishes in- 
stances of the imperiled home. The early disrup- 
tion of the family by the young 
Why two country people leaving the farm is one 

boys wanted to n j.i i t jj -i i 

, ^ cause oi the declme oi the rural 

leave home 

home. The long hours and hard 
labor of the farm, as well as the false and foolish 
notion that city life means ease and luxury, have 
been the combining causes to lure away the sons 
and daughters of some of the best rural families. 
A man who speaks from the standpoint of the 
farmer boy, puts his reasoning concerning this 
exodus of the boys from the farm into the form of 
an incident, which he met with on a ride into the 
country. 

In the dim light of early day, he was driving 
past the home of a farmer friend. He heard the 
bars being let down by the roadside, and saw a 
boy of about seventeen years leading a team 
through the open space. He said to the lad, 
" Where are you going so early in the morning ? " 
The boy's answer was, " Do you see that plow on 
the hillside yonder ? Well, I'm going up there, 
and I shall plow until half -past eleven ; then I shall 



THE JOYS OF HOME 259 

be at it again at two and work until dark. But I 
tell you one thing ; — just as soon as I can I shall 
leave the farm ; I'm tired out all the time, and I 
haven't decent clothes, and can't go anywhere. I 
won't stay when I'm my own boss." 

The same man tells of another complaint which 
was tearfully related to him by a country boy of 
his acquaintance. In answer to the question, 
" Have you a colt of your own ? " this boy said, 
" JSTot now ; I had one last year. Father gave me 
a little colt, and said if I would take care of it I 
might have it for myself. For two years and over 
we were great friends. He grew strong and 
beautiful. I taught him a few tricks, such as nod- 
ding his head for oats, and shaking hands for 
water. But he was too fine, father said, for the 
farm, and one day a man came along and offered 
father ninety dollars for the colt. Father took it, 
and when he saw how badly I felt, he promised to 
make it all right with me. But I have never seen 
a dollar of that money. When the man led off 
the colt, I went behind the barn and had a good 
cry, and when I came down the lane and looked 
over into the pasture where the colt used to be, I 
said to myself, ' "Well, I won't stay here forever. 
I'll go to the city where I can have my own 
money.' " 

ISTot only do the internal conditions of life in 
both city and country frequently make for the 
destruction or disruption of the home, but certain 



260 OHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

social factors appear as destructive agents. The 

great increase of divorce presents an alarming 

feature of present-day Hfe. In 

Other hindrances , , , i -i i j. 

cases where there are children to 

to home happiness 

be considered and provided for, 
the divorce is especially a home-destroying agency. 
The dissipations of men are alike responsible for 
the destruction of home happiness. To the saloon 
and the gambling fraternity may be charged the 
death of many an American home. The vice of 
drunkenness, fostered by the drinking habits com- 
mon in many homes in a former generation, as 
well as the gambling habit, nurtured in over- 
indulgent homes by the seemingly innocent social 
game, have grown to maturity as twin evils and 
have united to bring ruin to the ones who gave 
them life. The pinch of poverty and the pangs 
of physical ills have chased away the smiles that 
rightfully belong to the home life. Jacob Riis 
tells of a poor little maimed boy of Itahan par- 
entage whose sober face and pain-racked body 
were remembered by him through many years. 
One day while looking at the boy Mr. Eiis sud- 
denly said : " Pietro, do you ever laugh ? " The 
sober answer was, " I did wonst." 

It may be said that too dark a picture has been 
presented of the home conditions in our land. It 
is not our desire to indicate that the city is a place 
without homes, nor that the country is a dreary 
waste. After all, material wealth and the higher 



THE JOYS OF HOME 261 

social ideals have united in producing for many 

better conditions in both city and country than a 

former generation enjoyed. Eural 

e enng j^^^ ^^ especially benefited by the 

home conditions i ./ j 

introduction of the rural mail 
service, the telephone, the country high school, 
and the improved material surroundings of the 
farm home. We must believe as well that the 
forces of reform and Christianity will yet over- 
come the social evils in our land which make 
for the destruction of the American home. The 
bringing of more sunshine into home life, by the 
resolute determination to look for the bright 
things, will cause to grow in the home garden 
the fruit of joy which we have sought from other 
trees. Through the introduction of healthful 
sport into the home, we shall find that happiness 
will oil the wheels of life's machinery and set 
them going with a new motion. Thus shall we 
discover, as Dr. Gulick says, that "the road of 
everyday life leads into the widest and richest 
pastures and the keenest enjoyments," and avoid 
the mistake of those who " have climbed the fence 
so often that they have failed to reach the richest 
pastures." 

The occupations of the home life of young folk 
will have much to do with their after-memory of 
home as a pleasant spot. As our social life is now 
constituted, — especially in the aggressive western 
states, — the years spent by the children in the 



262 OHAEACTER THEOUGH EEGEEATION 

home seem altogether too short. The variety of 
home amusements provided for these fleeting years 
can only be suggested in this brief treatment of 
the subject, leaving the outlines to be filled in by 
the master-hand of the parent. 

Many children, as well as adults, find their 
greatest pleasure in reading. The " five-foot book- 
shelf," or the bookshelf of even 

The pleasures -, , , . . , , 

- ,. shorter dimensions has been a 

of reading 

potent factor in the cultivation of 
the best that is in the home lover. In the read- 
ing habit there is large play for the recreational 
side of life, as well as a mine of inexhaustible 
wealth for the intellect. Gibbon said, " My early 
and invincible love of reading I would not ex- 
change for the treasures of India." The boy of 
Intellectual habits should have his reading, if it is 
to build for him the best life, as carefully safe- 
guarded for him as his other recreations. The 
wise parent will see that sufficient books and 
periodicals of the right sort are provided so that 
the boy will not be under the necessity of bor- 
rowing questionable books from companions who 
are perhaps more free to lend than others whose 
books are more costly and of better character. 
The numerous public libraries to-day are fostering 
the literary taste, and really doing much to make 
the home a more enjoyable spot to the reading 
child. But of course the library committee can- 
not take the place of parental oversight in the 



THE JOYS OF HOME 263 

selection of a child's reading, and the presence of 
city and school library books in the home must 
not do away with the home ownership of books. 
Happy the boy or the girl who has a liberal supply 
of books which represent a personal possession. 

The young person who reads will sometimes 

have a story to tell, and there is nothing which 

helps the joy of home so much as 

ory- e ing ^-^^ occasional telling of a good 

and laughter ° ° 

story, either by the parent or by 
the child. Chauncey M. Depew says that the 
Americans are " a nation of story-tellers." The 
American home will do well to raise its prospec- 
tive citizens and life leaders with this habit, for the 
tedium of life has often been relieved by the story 
which fitted the need of the moment. A capacity 
for the enjoyment of fun and the appreciation of 
the ludicrous has belonged to many whose lives 
would otherwise have been poor. Abraham Lin- 
coln, though sometimes spoken of as our " man 
of sorrows," had a well-developed vein of humor, 
and during the days of great national anxiety was 
constantly smoothing the pathway of life by his 
aptly chosen anecdotes. The custom of seasoning 
a banquet with the witticisms of the after-dinner 
speaker may be copied with profit in the every- 
day life of the home. The dinner that is spiced 
with a little innocent fun digests better than the 
food eaten in silence. Home is the best place to 
cultivate the laughing habit. Charles Kingsley, 



264 CHAEACTEE THEOTJGH EECEEATION 

it is recorded, made it a point to introduce as 
much merry-making into his family as possible. 
He said, " I sometimes wonder whether there is 
as much laughing done in any home in England 
as at our parsonage." 

Perhaps the most perplexing problem for the 
parent in the home is the child's recreational oc- 
cupations on the Sabbath Day, — 
un ayoc- which above all the days is the 

cupations '' 

for children home day. While the sterner 

rules which once applied to the 
keeping of the Sabbath are no longer general, 
the real purpose of the day must still be con- 
served by the home, the institution which seeks 
to preserve the best in character. From the vari- 
ous suggestions of different authorities, as well as 
some little home experience of his own, the writer 
ventures to suggest some features of Sunday di- 
version for children. It is understood of course 
that the normal function of play in child life must 
be the basis of Sunday amusement, keeping in 
mind, however, the thought of making these 
plays accord with the greater purpose of the day. 
A certain mother who had several children of 
her own, as well as some of the neighbors', to 
think and plan for on Sunday afternoon, devised 
the plan of an hour with the children based on the 
Sunday-school lesson of the day. She taught them 
to draw a picture of the Sea of Galilee, using the 
colored school crayons. Here were the lines rep- 



THE JOYS OF HOME 265 

resenting the placid sea, the incline of green that 
represented the bank, and the spots of green that 
stood for the trees, the white flecks for clouds, 
while the multitude were represented by various 
marks and specks which, helped by childish im- 
agination, were woven into a picture of some 
artistic excellence. The picture, with others, was 
introductory to a story hour in which the lesson 
was read and other stories told. 

In another home a sand-table is made to portray 
Incidents of the Old Testament, leaving the !N"ew 
Testament stories for reading and telling. The 
cutting out from paper of men and animals, to 
enact upon the sand-table the stories of the Bible, 
occupies the children's heads and hands for hours 
at a time. The story of the Garden of Eden was 
in prospect for many days, it taking a long while 
to make the animals, trees and other settings for 
the scene. 

Other parents provide for their children the 
interesting series of card-games on the books of 
the Old and New Testaments, Bible occupations, 
etc. Maps of Palestine, cut into peculiarly shaped 
pieces and put together as a puzzle ; Bible stereo- 
scopic views as the foundation for travel-talks, 
are also used. One mother provides a box of 
toys for the little folks which may be used only 
on Sundays, and which affords a pleasant change 
from everyday pleasures. There are cards with 
outline pictures of Bible scenes, which may be 



266 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

colored with crayons ; a set of building-blocks 
appropriately designed for church architecture ; 
and a Noah's ark which has an abundance of 
animals. These suggestions adapted and added 
to by a person interested in childhood may be 
used to afford a profitable Sunday afternoon, 
with the element of fun and enjoyment at the 
forefront. 

A pleasure which will captivate both old and 

young is the Sunday afternoon walk. IsTot simply 

a meaningless going forth, but one 

The Sunday i • i i » *= . ^i 

,^ „ which has some purpose m the 

afternoon walk ^ ^ 

mind of the parent, though he 
may not announce it to his young charges. The 
observation of the birds, the examination of the 
minute things of nature through a microscope 
which is brought forth unexpectedly from the 
pocket, the captivating study of growing things, 
— all these make the walk, even though short, 
full of interest. Such a diversion is akin to that 
of the naturalist Agassiz, who, when offered the 
opportunity to take a long vacation and a journey 
to Europe, said he would take a journey, — but 
not to Europe. The journey was taken, — in his 
own door-yard ! The limited space of the nat- 
uralist's back-yard was so interesting to him 
that he spent three months in the journey, and 
as a result wrote a very captivating story of the 
strange sights which nature afforded him within 
a few rods of his own door. 



THE JOYS OF HOME 267 

The naturalist's interest in the narrow precincts 

of his own yard suggests that one has but to draw 

on the resources within himself to 

Resources found r. j i • • i.i n 

, , , „ nnd happiness m the smaller areas 

m a " hobby ctp* 

of life. A natural taste for music 
or reading or photography or some well-loved 
avocation, — often denominated a " hobby," — will 
prove to the individual or the family engaging in. 
it, a means of perennial enjoyment. 

What a lot of splendid enjoyment may be found 
in those musical evenings in the home ! Back in 

the earlier times it may be it was 

The enjoyment , , j -,. ,-, 

. only an old accordion, — the organ 

of music "^ . ' *=" 

being yet a dream to be realized m 
more prosperous times ! But the present-day 
family are more favored, and in place of an organ, 
the piano, and possibly other musical instruments 
as well, are their glad possessions. Young as well 
as old have access to the instruments, and the 
genuine pleasure is not confined to the performer, 
but extends to all who listen. The American peo- 
ple are music lovers indeed. A prominent musical 
authority computes that we spend nearly $600,- 
000,000 a year to gratify our taste for music. 
There probably never was a time when it was so 
easy to learn music as now. Even the child of 
kindergarten age is being taught to know the 
notes and to sing them. 

To the parent who understands music there is 
given a special power to impress the child in the 



268 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

home life with the value of high and holy things. 

In a recent article upon the subject of the 

spiritual value of music in the 

Hymns and , -i • - j i j; 

home, an author pictures the lam- 

their message ' ■•• 

ily gathered about the piano while 
the children are telling which songs they wish to 
sing. The small boy of the family says : " Sing, 
' We Three Kings of the Orient Are,' " and adds, 
" I like it, 'cause you can hear the camels march- 
ing in it 'way 'cross the hills of Bethlehem." The 
older child calls for " I Think When I Kead That 
Sweet Story of Old," or else "J^earer, My God to 
Thee," — hymns of the heart. Thus will music in 
the home endeavor to minister to the hunger of 
the child for the various kinds of melody. The 
small boy who likes the song that hammers its 
way into his soul, the girl who loves the hymns of 
the heart life, and the young person whose poetic 
and idealistic spirit is awake to the beauty of 
" The Spacious Firmament on High," interpreted 
in the classic strains of Haydn, should find a 
response to their heart's desire in the music of the 
home. 

A similar consideration of the needs of each 

child in his recreational life will establish a 

harmony of arrangement as to his 

, ., , , amusements, no less desirable than 

and Its contents ' 

the melody of voice and instru- 
ment. The children will be provided with an ap- 
propriate outlet for all the natural play instincts. 



THE JOTS OF HOME 269 

A home whioli in great degree seems to have 
measured up to this ideal comes to the thought of 
the writer. Coming as a stranger into the home, 
I did not need to be told of the presence there of 
a boy. In the hall from which the door opened 
into my room there was a miniature Indian tepee, 
in which a dummy Indian was seated, whose false 
face looked almost real. The tent was surrounded 
by a collection of stones and natural objects. 
Within a room just off the hall there was a fine 
case of butterflies and small insects, which mani- 
fested the laborious care with which the young 
naturalist had arranged his specimens. The walls 
were hung with pencil sketches, paintings, kodak 
pictures, and Indian relics. Books and papers 
were there as well, in that disorderly order so de- 
lightful to a boy, and the room and hall bespoke a 
freedom of home possession which I could but 
covet for every young American. 

Going outside the house you would find also an 

old shed where, on the bright summer days, the boy 

and his sister could have their good 

e p ay- times together in a wonderfully 

house ° •' 

fitted playhouse. The furniture 
was homemade, but the house was well equipped, 
and the children not only enjoyed it themselves, 
but unselfishly shared its pleasure with the other 
children of the neighborhood. Amid these sur- 
roundings and in a home environment carefully 
proportioned as to discipline and liberty, this boy 



270 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

and girl are passing through childhood and adoles- 
cence in a healthful and sensible way. 

Thus the recreational features of the home life 
of young folks will come in for the largest con- 
sideration by the parent who re- 
Make home attract- ,. ,, , . rv i (. 1 

- . .1, U-1J aiizes the character eiiect of home 

ive to the child 

environment. That mother who 
feels as though the boys ought to be kept outside 
the house, — like cats and dogs, — during all the 
weather that is moderate enough so that they will 
not freeze, will probably save her carpets from ruin 
and keep her floors as spotless as those of the ideal 
housewife ; but she may lose her boys and cause a 
stain upon their souls that neither time nor tears 
will eradicate. But the house that is always open 
to its youthful occupants ; where their friends as 
well as themselves feel at liberty to come, will be 
a recreational center which is as light in the dark- 
ness to some whose steps would otherwise go 
astray. A certain rug which was much abused 
by some boys who would persist in using it for a 
wrestling-mat, has recently been discarded from 
the home of the writer. He has reason to be 
glad, however, that the boy who rolled upon it 
has turned out well, and that his friends — "the 
boys " — had many a delightful time in the living- 
room of the old parsonage. 

The value of the child as an inspiration to the 
provision of amusement plans in the home has 
perhaps not been sufficiently considered. The joy 



THE JOYS OF HOME 271 

of the adult in the home life will largely depend, 
upon whether there is a child, — one, or many, — to 
be provided for in the family amusement pro- 
gram. It may be possible that the unattractive- 
ness of home is often due to the " dwindling 
American family " spoken of by social specialists. 
The family does not exist in the true sense where 
the child is absent. Prof. Eauschenbusch says, 
" If a man and a woman marry, they do not yet 
constitute a true family. The hand of a little 
child, more than the blessing of the priest, conse- 
crates the family." The spirit of true home en- 
joyment is often found most manifest in the homes 
of large families. 

The spirit of love and toleration also contributes 
to the joy of home life. In the child it is mani- 
fest in the respect and obedience 

The spirit of love i , . i j i i 

^ /. ^. due to superiors, and on the part 

and toleration . 

of the adult in the high regard for 
the rights of others of the same circle. The happy 
home has within it the thought of the unity of 
the family, instead of that false individualism 
which sometimes inclines one to feel that his rela- 
tion in the home is simply that of a separate and 
particular individual who takes his meals there 
because the cost is less than at a hotel. Home 
means to the true home lover a community with 
identical interests. The highest entertainment is 
realized when the family find their enjoyment to- 
gether, whether within or without their place of 



272 CHAEACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

abode ; the deepest devotion, when they worship 
at a common altar, whether in the home or in the 
public sanctuary ; and the loftiest patriotism 
when, — though father and sons depart for the 
fields of war or public service, — they are baptized 
by the tears and sanctified by the prayers of those 
who are. left behind. 

Memory reproduces, as I write, an evening hour 

in an old home, which is now no more, when the 

family gathered in the best room, 

. ' and without instrument, — for it 

home ' 

was in the days when prosperity 
still withheld its smile, — sang the old hymns of 
the heart, as the sun was going down. I can see 
the room as it then was ; — of moderate size, the 
walls covered with a bright but modest floral 
paper ; a rag carpet on the floor ; and a center- 
table over which hung a lamp with glass " din- 
gles " on it. From the wall looked down out of 
old-fashioned oval frames some of the portraits of 
my ancestors in the far-away New England home ; 
while over the couch yonder was an especially 
fin© steel engraving of Grace Darling rowing out 
in her boat through the stormy blackness to save 
the lost. Yes ; that was the old home — best 
recreational spot of my childhood days — where 
love reigned, and melody of sacred song at the 
Sabbath evening hour brought a sweet solace to 
hearts that were thus helped to face the toil of 
another week. In the gathering twilight I can 



THE JOYS OF HOME 273 

almost hear my mother's voice as she sings of 
" Love Divine, All Love Excelling," or my father's 
stronger tones as he raises the tune, " "When I Can 
Read My Title Clear." Such was the home beauti- 
ful in which was found pleasure that even the 
more varied fields of life have never yet surpassed. 



CHAPTER XYII 
EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 

We need only to turn back to claildhood's 
happy hours to find a time when play seemed 
a very vital part of life. Likewise in the re- 
searches of the student of racial problems there is 
found an early age when all mankind was in love 
with play. The present awakening to the value 
of the recreational life is both a reversion and an 
advance. The new play movement partakes of 
the characteristics of the early devotion to play as 
a diversion, with the added element of its prac- 
tical advantages. 

The present age is most exacting in its demand 
for a practical value in everything on which it 
■ places its stamp of approval. It 
lay to-day ^^ ^^^ unfitting, therefore, that the 

TraJticaTresuits ^^^^^^r should indicate in the clos- 
ing chapter of this book some of 
the general gains which have come as a result of 
the renaissance of play, and in some degree fore- 
cast its coming substantial advantages. In spite 
of numerous detrimental tendencies, there are 
many beneficial results which have come to the 
broader life of men, that are directly associated 
274 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 275 

with the new estimate of play and sport. These 
results have to do with the progress of the indi- 
vidual in particular and of society in general, and 
touch the physical, intellectual, and moral sides 
of life. 

The educational world has cause to be grateful 
when a new subject is launched on the sea of in- 
tellectual life. Though sailed by 

Endorsed by the j>, . i i j 

many a crait, the broad expanse 
educator «^ ' . ^ 

of that ocean contams room for 
every vessel which comes to bear its precious 
freight of larger wisdom. If the new ship is 
found to be not a dangerous visitant flying the 
black flag of piracy, but a friendly vessel laden 
with good products already known and loved, its 
presence will be welcome and ample opportunity 
given to deliver its load of treasure at humanity's 
wharf. The place occupied by the subject of play 
in the curriculum of the school, and the practical 
demonstration of its value within and without the 
schoolroom, is evidence of its hearty acceptance 
by the educational w^orld of to-day. 

The wide endorsement of athletic games and 
the systematic instruction in physical development 

by our educational institutions 
, ^ show that play is accepted at 

value r J r 

full face for its physical value. 
One of the most widely accepted games for ath- 
letic development, basket-ball, has come to its 
world-wide popularity in a marvelously short 



276 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

time. Invented only twenty-three years ago, this 
strictly American game has found a ready accept- 
ance in all parts of the world. The physical value 
of the game, as well as the element of enjoyment 
which it brings to its participants, has been a 
leading factor in making it popular. Educators 
have discovered a very intimate relation between 
the physical condition of the student and his in- 
tellectual progress. A writer tells of the con- 
trasting of two schools in Germany, one of which 
had physical training while the other had not. It 
was found that the school which gave one-fourth 
of its time to exercise and play in the open air 
not only came up with the other, which spent all 
its time in the schoolroom, but surpassed it in 
scholarship. For many years the countries of the 
eastern hemisphere have excelled us in their ap- 
preciation of games and systematic physical train- 
ing, but recent years have found this country 
rapidly coming to the front in physical education. 
The advantage of the study of play methods 
and play leadership is indicated by the fact that 
leading universities have courses 

Teachers now ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ Subiects at- 

studying play j. a a u u + 

methods tended by many who are eager to 

become proficient in them, that 
they may go out to supply the rapidly increasing 
demand for instructors who shall be able to look 
after the physical 'as well as the intellectual de- 
velopment of the pupils. A class in physical edu- 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 277 

cation in the University of Missouri was recently 
found to be made up as follows: One county 
superintendent, three school superintendents, two 
high-school principals, one physical director, three 
students, two teacher-coaches, eight city and town 
teachers, and three rural teachers. 

The boy and the girl are also given foremost at- 
tention in many of our prominent schools. Such 
universities have chairs of " Rec- 

The universities , . j -^^^ ■>■> ^^ 

, . , reation and Play" as well as 

studjang play ■' 

" Child Welfare," and m their 
model schools are teaching play to the child. 
The " School of Childhood " at the University of 
Pittsburgh, for children of the kindergarten age, 
in which the direction of individual play and spon- 
taneously formed group play is carried on by 
trained leaders, reminds one of the Montessori 
" Houses of Childhood." 

The intellectual stimulus of the study of play is 
also furthered by a rapidly widening literature on 

the subject, and by actual experi- 

er oppor uni- Q^ice in children's playgrounds 

gjyjj which are being established in 

increased numbers in our various 
towns and cities. The Playground and Recrea- 
tion Association of America reports, regarding 
the increase of these agencies, that during the 
past year 500,000 children were for the first time 
given access to directed playgrounds. By their 
touch with play life, the many students of play and 



278 CHAEAOTEE THEOUGH EEOEBATION 

actual workers on the playground have found an 
intellectual uplift and a character stimulus which 
have not come in the pursuit of the supposedly 
more serious studies. In becoming the bene- 
factors of childhood they have themselves been 
the recipients of the good gifts of truth which 
only the school of childhood can impart. They 
have felt the value of the juvenile world and can 
join with Longfellow in his praise of the children : 

" Come to me, O ye children ! 
And whisper in my ear 
What the birds and the winds are singing, 
In your sunny atmosphere. 

*' For what are all our contrivings, 
And the wisdom of our books, 
When compared with your caresses, 
And the gladness of your looks ? 

" Ye are better than all the ballads 
That ever were sung or said, 
For ye are living poems, 
And all the rest are dead," 

There are yet many people and many commu- 
nities that have not realized the intellectual and 
character stimulus that has been 
rousing com- fQ^j^^j j^y others in the fields of 

munity interest ■^ • i i 

play. There are multitudes both 
of children and adults who have not yet discov- 
ered the royal way of profitable pleasure. These 
need to be awakened and brought to the higher 
pleasure program. How may this best be done ? 



EETEOSPEOT AND PEOSPECT 279 

As a first step to the awakening of a community 
to its need of better recreational advantages a 
close-at-hand investigation of the case is important. 
The survey gives a better idea of community con- 
ditions than a less thorough study could possibly 
accomplish. Dr. Gulick recommends that an 
" occupational census " be taken, and suggests 
Saturday evening at nine o'clock as a favorable 
time, when a corps of workers might be sent out 
to discover how many people are on the streets, 
in the saloons, billiard-halls, gymnasiums, libra- 
ries, dance-halls, theaters, etc., of a certain district 
of the city. No better argument for the bettering 
of amusement conditions could be had than such 
a survey. By enlisting the help of school boards 
and teachers, a tabulation might also be made of 
the amusement tastes of youth through a ques- 
tionnaire in the schools. 

The right of appeal to amusement vendors, city 
officials, or to the public through the press, is pos- 
sible to every one who is interested 
vercommg e - ^^ better amusement conditions for 

nmental amuse- . y^ «. • 

j^gj^^g any community. Offensive adver- 

tising placards and billboards may 
be eliminated by a similar process. Though it 
would not seem advisable to recommend the 
action of a certain women's organization that tore 
down and destroyed the indecent advertising 
posters of a traveling show, there might be condi- 
tions where such militant methods were the only 



280 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

remedy. The overcoming of detrimental amuse- 
ment features has not proved an easy task, 
especially where public conscience is lacking. 
The public-spirited citizen, or the Christian who 
has caught the social vision, may do much to 
accomplish this. The investment of money and 
effort for the providing of better amusements will 
be amply repaid by the higher type of young life 
which the community will produce. Patience 
will be necessary, and some sacrifice required as 
well. Gradually, however, the taste of the com- 
munity may be changed, and the awakening of 
civic pride come to the assistance of the few who 
have been compelled for a time to carry the bur- 
den alone. 

The Church will realize its obligation to provide 

a clean bill of recreations for its constituency. Its 

public entertainments will be of 

How the Church ,■, j. j.i x -n j i 

the sort that will need no apology. 

may help ^ <=''' 

It will also give the needed in- 
struction in the why and wherefore of a better 
amusement life. This writer hopes to see the 
time come when it shall be considered as im- 
portant for the churches, Sunday-schools, and 
young people's societies to give instruction to the 
young jpeojple on the subject of amusements as upon 
the much-discussed questions of temperance, mis- 
sions, and other social themes, now so appropri- 
ately and attractively presented. A very use- 
ful occupation for any pastor or Sunday-school 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 281 

worker, especially during the winter months, 
would be the weekly gathering of a class of 
young folks, to study the subject of recreation in 
its relation to character. The wide reach of the 
subject, in its philosophical, historical, and prac- 
tical aspects, would furnish a most entertaining 
and profitable exercise. Especially would the 
young people be benefited by such a course, for 
the danger or safety of the young is largely de- 
pendent upon their activities in the field of sport 
and recreation. 

We can but be grateful that both physically 

and morally there is being made at present by 

our school authorities an honest 

u 1 .u -.- effort to provide the best program 

school authorities ^ r o 

of play for their pupils. The re- 
lation between school work and the pupil's recrea- 
tion is becoming more and more intimate, but 
not all has yet been realized in the relation of 
athletics to the school curriculum. The future 
will bring yet greater development in this regard. 
One day, as the writer sat in the office of the 
Dean of a certain western university, discussing 
with him the general question of amusements, the 
manner of conducting athletics in the average 
college wherein training is given en masse, was 
touched upon. Said the Dean, " I should like to 
see the time come when each student as he enters 
school might have a physical examination given 
him, so that he might be enlisted in the kind of 



282 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

athletics and assigned to the kind of physical 
training needed for his individual case. Then let 
his physical training proceed along with his intel- 
lectual training as a part of his regular course." 

The hope expressed by this educator will doubt- 
less become a reality. The beginnings of it are 
even now seen. As a token of 

Newark's new .-, j .. <• i - -• 

, - . , ^. the adoption of such a systematic 

plan of athletics ^ -^ 

plan of physical education, a letter 
recently received from Eandall D. Warden, Phys- 
ical Director of the city schools of ]^ewark, IsT. J., 
may be given. He says : " IS'ewark has this year 
adopted an entirely new plan of athletics. This 
plan is in the nature of a physical efficiency test, 
and is based on a triangular test consisting of a 
fifty-yard dash, chinning-bar, and running high- 
jump. Each grade has an efficiency chart so that 
the boys will score by percentages. We hope to 
test at least 80 per cent, of all the boys in our 
public schools and give each boy the percentage 
rating according to his ability to pass these tests. 
As you can see, this will connect physical training 
with the curriculum in a manner similar to that 
in which academic subjects are rated. I think this 
is the newest thing in the country in athletics." 

The movements in progress for the further de- 
velopment of play and recreation make it impos- 
sible for us to tabulate at this time all the lessons 
which have come and are still coming to the 
world as a result of the appreciation of life's 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 283 

lighter side. But some of the returns are in. In 

the attempt to come to an appreciation of the 

child's natural instinct for play 

ysica gains ^^^ ^-^^ adult's desire for recre- 

from play 

ational facilities, we have been led 
nearer to nature in all things. The play spirit of 
the present age has brought us a life of less strain 
and worry. Men live more easily and more nat- 
urally than in a former generation. Youthfulness 
is more evident, and old age with its attendant 
decrepitude has been pushed farther away. The 
men of the present generation are younger for 
their years than were their fathers at the same 
age. 

The return of the era of play among grown-ups 
has likewise affected the mental realm. Imagina- 
tion, that wonderful wizard of the 

A quickened • i i i • r- 

. . ,. mmd, has been ffiven ireer range : 

imagination ' o o ' 

for he who dwells in the world of 
play must live in the realm of the imaginative. 
Thus released from the thraldom of more somber 
days, we revel in fancy's fields where childhood 
once held universal sway. Since the quickened 
imagination has been the inspiration of the orator, 
the poet, and the painter, may we not ere long 
expect to reap the reward of our return to pleas- 
ure's fields in increased resources of literary and 
artistic treasure ? 

The writer is aware that the present pleasure 
devotion of humanity is looked upon by not a 



284 OHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

few as a sign of moral decadence. And we can- 
not deny that in the pathway of pleasure there 
are possibilities of danger. All 
r^sfbe"'^^^^^ Hbertj of thought and action, 
pXX balanced —valuable as it is to human prog- 
ress, — is accompanied by peril. 
The young, especially need to learn that the ac- 
tivities of life must have their proper balance. 
In the well-rounded life, work and play will join 
hands as comrades in character uplift. 

Though this book has sought to establish the 
value of play, it will not be understood that the 
writer desires to minimize the value of the disci- 
pline and stimulus of labor as an asset of the 
well-balanced life. Both labor and play will need 
direction and guidance, lest the liberty of either 
should become license. Those whose natural in- 
clination leads them to dissipate, — either in work 
or in play, — must learn the art of self-control. 
Working hours, however, are not generally regu- 
lated by the worker, but the abuses of overwork 
vv^ill cease as both employer and employed shall 
come to a greater recognition of the value of the 
human machine. One force that is, and will be, 
potent in reducing the hardships of toil is the 
increasing value now put upon recreation by both 
manufacturer and man. 

As to amusement indulgence, the same wisdom 
must apply as in the regulation of working hours. 
"When the amusement lover shall study the ten- 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 285 

dency of his pleasures, the danger of a wrong 
choice or of over-indulgence will in large measure 
be removed. The individual of more serious cast 
of mind will also need to watch his attitude re- 
garding popular pleasures. A selection of pleas- 
ure plans, — chosen with the same care as medicine 
is prescribed by the physician, — will probably be 
necessary to develop the neglected side of his life 
and prevent his becoming a recluse. 

A study of the amusement life of men in its 

larger social aspect will reveal the fact that in 

this country at least the pleasure 

. , ^ ^ life of the people is decidedly upon 

social benefit r j. ./ i 

the up-grade. Indeed, the evolu- 
tion of the pleasure life of the race is one of the 
favorable signs of the dawning of a moral mil- 
lennium. The nation-wide influence of a recre- 
ational program is testified to by various authori- 
ties. The foreign missionary is now using play 
plans to enlarge the circle of life for those under 
his care. Through the organized work of play- 
ground and gymnasium, the children of the East 
are being assisted to a longer childhood, which is 
one of their greatest needs. In China, we are 
told, the physical education of girls has assisted 
in breaking down the age-long custom of foot- 
binding, since the girl with the natural foot has, 
in the drills of the gymnasium, such pleasing 
grace of movement. A superintendent of school 
work in the Philippines says that the introduction 



286 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION" 

of the American game of baseball has, within the 
past few" years, done more to civilize adult Fili- 
pinos than the combined efforts of army and 
navy, commerce and the school system. Base- 
ball appeals to them even more than their own 
usual enjo3''ment of cock-fighting. Tribes for- 
merly hostile to each other have been brought to 
friendliness through their match games on the 
ball field. They have learned to contest against 
each other without enmity ; the value of fair 
play has been taught — a fair chance for all on 
the field of life as well as on the field of sport. 

That the creation of a better personal program 

of life is clearly possible through play is evidenced 

in the illustrations with which this 

, book abounds. The writer does 

play 

not for a moment claim that rec- 
reational features are to be considered as a sub- 
stitute for divine grace in the transformation of 
human character, but he does believe that recre- 
ation in both individual and national life may be 
one of God's chosen avenues for the introduction 
of ethical and social virtues. The ministry of 
amusement to man's higher life must not be over- 
looked. There is even a closer relation between 
piety and play than many imagine. Indeed, the 
two fields of worship and recreation are the most 
common meeting-places of the races of men. At 
Ellis Island, in New York, the children of the im- 
migrants, while in detention, have special direc- 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 287 

tion in play under a trained assistant. Here the 
children of all nationalities unite together in 
games, for play is the international language. 
So also with worshijD. A lady acquaintance of 
the writer, while on a tour through the Orient, 
in company with a party of American tourists, 
sang gospel songs on Mars Hill, overlooking an- 
cient Athens, while wondering Greek children 
gathered around. In the attempt to make the 
little ones understand, the lady, while singing 
the songs, pointed to the sky. What wonder is 
it that the children understood, and crossed them- 
selves reverently, since worship, too, is an inter- 
national tongue ! 

It need not be thought strange that play has a 

kinship to religion. In the religious life of both 

the active and ascetic type ecstasy 

Emotion revived has an important place. Though 

through the T • T^ 1 ^ 

play life ^"-^ reiigious lite may become too 

largely emotional, the element of 
emotional fervor is an essential factor in its finest 
manifestation. The same emotional function ex- 
ercised in play is a valued factor in religious ex- 
perience. Whatever tends to the ennobling de- 
velopment of the emotional faculty is the friend, 
rather than the enemy, of religion. One of the 
most important contributions to the religious life 
of this amusement-loving age is the quickening of 
the emotional life of the people. It is the firm 
conviction of many who preach and teach the 



288 CHAEACTER THEOUGH EECEEATION 

gospel that its first appeal, at least to a large 
proportion of mankind, must be the appeal to the 
emotional life. Unless the preacher can cause his 
hearers to feel, he has poor success in persuading 
them to wiU and to do. 

Once the wide desolation of war called forth 
the emotional life of the people and bade it live 
again. Amid the tears and sighs of national 
grief, patriotism had a new birth and poets pro- 
duced songs that have lived long after them. 
ISTow, when the years of commercial success have 
magnified materialism and chilled the heart life of 
men, we have a resurrection of the emotional 
nature through the revival of play. It is fitting 
that the most serious-minded individual should 
recognize, — together with his neighbor of more 
happy inclination, — the value of the means that 
has taught us to feel, and to sing, and to smile. 

The place of recreation in the world's thought, 
as well as a hint of the larger reward of the era of 
play, is happily presented in a lit- 
The parable of the ^q parable which is given by 
ThT'Tn ^"'^^'' Walter A. Dyer in his book, The 
Richer Life? He tells us of a 
nobleman, in a far-away land and time, who, com- 
ing near to the end of life, brought his three sons 
before him. Telling them that he soon must 
leave the world, he bade them choose their life- 
work that he might divide his property among 

^ Walter A, Dyer, The Richer Life, p. 39 fE. 



EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT 289 

them, and send them forth to make theu* fortunes. 
The eldest, being keen of intellect and of great 
virtue as well, determined to become a scholar. 
The second son chose to be a soldier, for he was a 
man of vigor and ambition, and desired to win his 
way to fame and power. The youngest, who had 
eyes like his mother, and was his father's favorite 
son, was called by the king of the land to be the 
court jester, for he was of ready wit and would 
rather laugh and sing than engage in some sterner 
occupation. But though he was a gentle youth, 
he earnestly desired that his life might be worth 
living and that he might worthily serve his 
generation ; so he hesitated to go at the king's be- 
hest, for, said he, " A jester is not a man of honor 
among his brethren." After many days, how- 
ever, his decision was made, and, receiving his 
father's blessing, he went forth as had his brothers 
before him, — not to the world of books nor to the 
field of war, but to the humble position of a 
king's jester. 

Twenty years passed. The old nobleman had 
long slept in his grave, but his sons still lived. A 
traveler passed by a hermit's cave in the mountains, 
and saw the one who had chosen scholarly pursuits 
poring over his books. On making inquiry as to 
the character of the hermit, he found that he had 
gained great renown as a man of much learning. 
But he had failed when he tried to teach his 
philosophies to meUj for they could not understand 



290 CHAEACTEE THEOUGH EECEEATION 

him. His solitude and his brooding had made him 
morose ; he had separated himself from his fellow- 
men, and no one loved him. 

One day the traveler saw a knight of forbidding 
visage on a coal-black charger, amid the pomp of 
a great procession of men-at-arms. He vras told 
that the knight had come back from the wars with 
much wealth and great renown. But fighting had 
hardened his heart, and the people did not love 
him ; though he bestowed alms they feared him. 

After a time the traveler came to the city 

where the king's palace was located. As he 

paused before the inn, a jester 

The mission of . , , . i i n ^ 

thejoy-maker ^^^^ ^^^ ^^P ^^^ ^cUs paSSed 

by, surrounded by children who 
begged him for a story. An old woman at a 
doorway impulsively seized the hand of the jester 
and kissed it. As he passed by, the people smiled, 
—not in derision, but in love. The jester, as the 
traveler discovered, when not busy making merry 
for the king, had taken to wandering about the 
town and making laughter for the people. They 
found beneath his jests a fund of homely wisdom, 
and under his motley garb a Christian heart. 
They told him their troubles and he ministered to 
their sad spirits. The people looked for his com- 
ing as for the sunshine after the shower, and, 
though he was only a jester, he understood the 
common people and the town was better because 
he lived in it. Then the traveler, who had come 



EETEOSPECT Al^D PEOSPECT 291 

from the far East, said, " I have traveled far and 
have seen many men of power and learning and 
fame ; I have seen those who had great wealth 
and those who professed much piety ; but the men 
of great soul are few. This man has turned his 
life to account, for the things of the spirit are bet- 
ter than the things of the body or of the mind." 

The present day does not find the joy-bringers 
of the world decked in the garb of the court 
jester. They are standing rather among the lead- 
ers of the world's thought, striving by a new and 
helpful program of amusement to uplift the lives 
of their fellow-men, bringing to little children, to 
youth, and to those of riper years, the ministry of 
a fuller life. The object of their eifort, however, 
is similar, and the result of their work has been 
and still shall be the development of 

CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION. 



